Is it true?

"Facebook is for old people." - direct quote from my father

Recently, a larger number of old"er" people are joining Facebook for social networking purposes.
Allow me to make a few observations about the older generation:

1. They don't quite get it. Admittedly, Facebook has a learning curve. Unfortunately for them, knowledge doesn't come as quickly as it does our tech-savvy generation, so even though they've had Facebook for a year, they still accidentally write on their own wall sometimes and still don't know how to upload pictures. (I almost peed my pants last week when my dad was telling me he had to enter his telephone number every time he accepted a friend request. And then he said Facebook sent him a text message with a code that he had to enter so he wouldn't have to type his phone number again. I think I finally figured out it must be the new way of verifying your account, but I really just thought he was being scammed.)

2. They still feel the need to sign their wall posts. "Dear Abby Jane, hope you're having a good day! Gina" as if I didn't see that "Gina Smith" had written on my wall. I understand it's probably difficult to go from signing telegrams, letters, e-mails, and now wall posts all in one lifetime.

3. They feel the need to add every single application someone tells them they should because they will feel bad if they don't. (They still think the person sent it to them personally...I've had a hard time explaining this one.)

4. They fall for the ads on the margins of the page or for the occasional viruses that post something like "I found your picture here! ndksladhsjkladna" on their wall.

5. They are genuinely concerned when teenagers write things like "life sucks" as their status and respond accordingly. "What's wrong sweetie? Having a bad day?" "What happened?" "Are you okay?" As if teenagers haven't always felt this way at one point or another, they just now have a more immediate and public way of expressing it. And they realllllly don't understand it when they post song lyrics. ("What does that even mean??")


I try to provide insight to some of these questions I get asked in real life by my father, co-workers, and bosses, but there are only so many questions I can answer in a day before I start wondering if Facebook is really for old"er" people...