As Facebook Turns Five, Baby Boomers Join

Five years ago this week, a Harvard University student created a social networking website known as Facebook. It quickly grew in popularity among college students across the world. Today it claims to have 150 million users. KSMU’s Kristian Kriner reports on a new demographic getting into the Facebook craze: baby boomers.

Tina Jarvis, or as her grandkids call her “Mamie,” joined Facebook in August of last year to stay in touch with her friends and family.

Jarvis says she worked with the young adults in her church for six years, and they encouraged her to join Facebook.

She says she was the first in her family to join, and some of her family members have told her she’s too old for it.

“I’m amazed since I’ve been on at the increase in older people. Because when I first got on there wasn’t anybody that I knew, my age doing it. And now there’s tons. Almost every time I get on there, there’s somebody else that’s in my generation that’s got on,” Jarvis said.

Facebook says it’s fastest growing demographic is those age 30 and older.

Jarvis says she hasn’t connected with any high school or college friends yet, but she hopes to.

She says some younger and older members need to be aware that other people are looking at their homepages, pictures and conversations.

“I think it’s a great tool for connecting and keeping people informed about activities and issues and all of that. I think it’s great for that, but I think you need to use some wisdom or you can get into trouble on it,” Jarvis said.

She says she’s had trouble learning how to send messages and chat with her friends, but she’s getting the hang of it.

Jarvis says she enjoys looking at all her friend’s pictures, status updates and what they are doing now.

“I actually enjoy it, because I enjoy getting on reading what people are doing and it’s kind of a temperature gauge for me to see how people are doing and what they are struggling with," Jarvis said.Jarvis says she will continue checking Facebook every day and find more friends she can catch up with.

Jarvis’ Facebook status now reads “Tina Jarvis just finished an interview with KSMU about old people on Facebook.”

For KSMU News, I’m Kristian Kriner.