Female baby boomers join Facebook because their daughters make them join, a new study reported.
Study researchers interviewed 28 women aged 50 and older who used social networking sites, and most of them used Facebook, according to LiveScience.com. About 86 percent said they joined because of family while about half (48 percent) joined specifically because of their daughters.
The study was presented by the American Sociological Association Saturday and seemed to indicate that the women joined so they could see their daughters' photos, according to Nancy Horak Randall, a sociology professor at Wingate University in North Carolina. Most of the baby boomers learned to use computers at work (71 percent) but Facebook would be something new and likely instigated by their daughters.
Randall suggested that women feel responsible for maintaining family ties and Facebook helps with that.
Randall also plans a study on why older men join social networks, but their motives could be a little different. To us, it seems that older women are joining to get pictures and news about grandchildren and other relatives, which can easily be shared with their male companions, so older men may not need their own accounts.
