56% over 65 now use Facebook

It has been widely documented that many younger people are abandoning Facebook. Some say it’s because they don’t want to be on a network that their parents use. What about their grandparents? Pew is showing that over half of the internet-using population over the age of 65 is on the social network. In other news, there’s more to social media than Facebook, at least according to the research.

Overall, Facebook’s growth slowed but engagement levels increased. On other networks such as Twitter and Pinterest, the number of users rose more dramatically but engagement decreased. While some say this is due to fatigue and accounts going dormant, we speculate that the users are getting more efficient at using the networks. The can be seen in the dramatic rise of adults using multiple networks – 52% in 2014 versus 42% the year before.