Silly rabbit, MySpace is for kids



It’s no secret that social networking has integrated itself into our lives. Just ask any teenager (any kid, for that matter), and they’ll tell you they have their own MySpace page.

They know how to create, design and in some cases know how to manipulate the HTML to make their MySpace site OMG!

While MySpace is primarily for kids and teens, Facebook is increasingly popular with the 35-plus set, and has become a mainstream marketing medium. Marketers are rethinking the paradigm in their staid demographics models.

In an article in Advertising Age, writer Michael Learmonth profiles Facebook in a refreshing way that attributes Facebook with bringing together 170 million people worldwide – 52 million in the U.S. alone, with its fastest demographic being 55-plus.

As a fellow Facebook member, I’ll admit I was drawn to the site because it has a no-nonsense, adult feel to it. I had toggled around on MySpace, but it just seemed bell-and-whistle for me – juvenile, and I was searching for a social networking site that catered more to creativity and a more mature way of thinking.

And I’m glad to say Facebook has continued to keep that format, changing very little in the process. (Although the ‘Poke’ feature and the ‘Requests to join...whatever group’ are a bit annoying at times.)

Facebook’s recent, very public blunder of trying to quietly change their terms of service agreement, whereby allowing itself to use any and all writings and photos of its members now and in perpetuity, without compensation or credit, drives the point home that its more mature demographic are crusaders and consumer advocates who are not to be messed with.

After the service agreement change was continually commented on and criticized in the blogosphere for a mere 24 hours, Facebook relented and reverted back to its previous terms of service agreement.

Related article: Marketers adapt as social networks attract older users