Missouri Social Networking and Older Adults

Social Networking and Older Adults

Libraries, Older Adults & Web 2.0

Presented by

Allan M. Kleiman

October 20-24, 2008

Allan M. Kleiman, Missouri State Library, October 2008


What has Spawned is Something “New” and “Exciting” in Social Networking

This is not “My Space Gone Gray” Or, as the NYT Called it: “Facebook With

Wrinkles”



How Can You Get Seniors in Your Library Involved in Social Networking

Most of all—how can you share that information about what is happening with your colleagues and most importantly-- with the baby boomers and older adults that use your library (public and academic)



Numbers are Confusing Pew Internet & American Life---- 22% of Seniors 65 and Older use the Internet Fastest Growing Segment of Internet Users

are those 85+



Currently 35 Million Older Adults and by 2020 the Older Adults Population Will Double

Big Business in Developing & “Hooking” the Baby Boomers Now!

Sites that are Connected to Another Organization are Doing Well—Independent Sites are Not Doing So Well

Why? Let’s See?



How did it all begin?



www.seniornet.com Founded by Mary Furlong Development of Senior Training Sites around

the US—to be international Featured Last Week in the NYT “Social” Learning Site



www.thirdage.com Founded by Mary Furlong (“First” Social

Networking (Learning) Site (1997) Seniornet was Not-for-Profit—Thirdage is for

Profit or a Commerical Site Moves from “Learning” to Learning and

Socializing



What can you do on Thirdage.com? Same as Seniornet? But more?



Eons People, Fun, Love, Money, Body, Lifepath, Obits,

Games, Travel Founded by Jeff Taylor (former CEO of

Monster.Com) launched in July 2006 Sequoia Capital and General Catalyst, who have

invested $32 million in Eons over two rounds, are said to have demanded the restructure.

Laid off 72 Employees



Let the Competition Begin: More Friendly Versions of MySpace and

Facebook “Eons, Rezoom, Multiply, Maya’s Mom,

Boomj, and Boomertown. They look like Facebook — with wrinkles” NYT 9/12/07

“Old People are Sticky”



New Search Engine—It’s not crabby, it’s www.cranky.com

Outgrowth of Eons Taylor said in a written statement that the

company teamed up with online consumer research firm Compete to find the 5000 most popular Web sites among a group of 500,000 Web users aged 45 and older and rated each site in order to create Cranky.com



What’s New— www.eldr.com, launching June 2007, mission

is to help baby boomers and their aging parents deal with the challenges and opportunities of agin by providing the most useful thought-provoking and trusted information available anywhere,



Redhatsociety.com 40,000 Chapters in US/Worldwide Red Hats, Purple Dress Fun, Silly, Uplifting, Inspirational "All my life, I've done for you. Now it's my

turn to do for me."



Boomers! TV: Redefining Life After 50 Web 2.0 Technology Produced Online Shows that can also be

found through American Public Network (PBS on Demand)

Boomers! Transition Network



http://members.aol.com/gendervariant/prime/ Brings Sites Together for Gay & Gray



Blogs Senior Bloggers were interviewed by AP and

said that the benefits for them of blogging were:

Senior blogs help older adults keep their minds sharp

Senior blogs keep the authors up on current events



Senior blogs are a great way to meet people from throughout the world

It’s easy to share life experiences, wisdom and information through senior blogs

In some cases, senior blogs give the authors a bit of fame and recognition for their efforts



3 Percent of online seniors in the U.S. have created a blog, and 17% have read someone else’s blog

22 percent of Americans aged 65 and older use the Internet. That’s 1 in 5!



The Ageless Project http://jenett.org/ageless/



The Ageless Project The Ageless Project is a website that lists blogs or websites of people in order

of their birth year. There are a huge number of boomer blogs on the site and there are even 2 sites of people over 90. To qualify, the sites are screened to make sure that they are personal sites that have no commercial content. Below are the stats of the sites.

Born in the 1910s: 2 0.12%Born in the 1920s: 16 0.94%Born in the 1930s: 40 2.36%Born in the 1940s: 99 5.83%Born in the 1950s: 190 11.19%Born in the 1960s: 310 18.26%Born in the 1970s: 642 37.81%Born in the 1980s: 379 22.32%Born in the 1990s: 15 0.88%

Total Listings: 1698



So, now that we have all this information??? What should we do?— Cranky in Computer Class Training “Link” these Resources in your Library’s Web

Site “Teach” Your Students and Colleagues

About These “Social” sites



“JOIN” the sites—test them Become a Participant Add Web 2.0 Technology to Your Web

Classes Provide Feedback, Both Positive and

Negative to the Sites Help Make Them Succeed!



In Conclusion, It’s not MySpace Yet! But Who Knows what’s next

Social Networking, Search Engines and Blogging for Baby Boomers & Older Adults

Online Communities for Baby Boomers and Older Adults are Growing and are here to stay!, well maybe?

But…But before I leave I should tell you what are we doing at the Old Bridge Public Library-----here is what you can do!



Questions?

Answers



Allan M. Kleiman

[email protected] Libraryolderadults.blogspot.com

732-738-5181

Missouri Social Networking and Older Adults

Technology

Transcript of Missouri Social Networking and Older Adults