Beth Kanter has a blog posting (Audience for Social Networks Is Aging: Growth in 35-49 Age Group ...) about a report from Neilson Online (she has a link to the pdf of the report in her blog posting) that reveals a growing trend towards the adoption of social networks by older adults that outpaces that of the younger generation. The report points to Facebook as the source of the growth.

My 64 year old mother recently got on Facebook, which is a minor miracle since she hates technology and gets so frustrated by it.  The reason was two-fold.  First, her sister helped set her up on Facebook and she needed that experience and support to make this less of a hassle.  Secondly, she wanted to see the pictures of her family (in particular her grandchildren) that my brother and two sisters were pposting up on Facebook.  Support and motivation are two key ingredients in the adoption of technology.

Having trouble with the bookmark link. Here is the full url:

http://beth.typepad.com/beths_blog/2009/03/audience-for-social-networks-is-aging-growth-in-3549-age-group-says-new-nielson-report.html

If you have trouble accessing it just go to her blog: http://beth.typepad.com/beths_blog/ and look for  article titled "Audience for Social Networks Is Aging: Growth in 35-49 Age Group Says New Nielson Report" (March 10, 2009).