Baby boomers are flooding facebook. (Photo: Alexandra Haggert)

In a decade where technology thrived and new websites prospered, it’s no surprise that social networking sites caught on so quickly. Facebook was started in 2004 when Harvard sophomore Mark Zuckerberg created it with his roommates as a way to keep in touch with other students on campus. The site was eventually released to the public and has garnered millions of users.

But a recent study has shown that students are not the fastest growing demographic on the social networking site – that honour goes to students’ parents and grandparents.

Bekah Goodman, a first-year criminology student at Carleton University, said she has been active on Facebook since she was 14 years old and has her mom as a Facebook friend.

“I accepted my mom’s request right away because I figured it would be pretty hard to ignore. I guess I just always thought Facebook was a teenager thing and never something parents would be interested in,” she said.

These days it’s common to have a friend’s mom or dad adding you on Facebook - in fact it’s slowly becoming the norm. A study done by iStrategyLabs, a marketing agency, suggests that the number of new Facebook users 55 and up increased by almost 6 per cent in last six months compared to a 4 per cent increase in growth from students aged 18-24.

Kristen Darel, a daily Facebook user and first-year journalism student at Wilfred Laurier University said she thinks there are a lot of advantages and disadvantages to social networkingthat parents may not be aware of.

“I think the reason my mom got Facebook was to get in touch with friends, but after a while I think she realized she could use it to find out what I was really doing all the time,” Goodman said.

“My mom uses Facebook to keep up with technology and stay updated while I’m travelling,” said Ryan Moxam, third-year engineering student at University of Waterloo.

“It’s cool finding old friends and making new ones, sharing photos, videos and music with others and just communicating, but it can definitely be distracting when you’re trying to get work done. Also, if the proper privacy settings aren’t there it’s easier access to photos and information that you don’t necessarily want people seeing.”
While Goodman, Darel and Moxam all agree that they don’t mind having their moms on Facebook, there are privacy settings that can prohibit what people have access viewing on a profile.

“I do have my mom blocked from seeing photos I’m tagged in and viewing what other people post on my wall because I know she would find a lot of it inappropriate,” Darel said.