Social networking sites initially gained traction thanks to Generation Y when Friendster launched 6 years ago. Then when Facebook opened its doors to the general public, the site experienced a surge in users that were over 40. I for one, now have two parents that are both active on Facebook. While it’s a weird feeling, I doubt it’s as weird as it is for middle and high schoolers that have their parents checking their online profiles to make sure they aren’t getting into trouble.

Generation Y has proven its willingness to switch social network sites on the drop of a dime. That’s what happened to Friendster when MySpace launched a few years back and many have begun to wonder if the same thing is destined for Facebook. So far, the older crowd has been successful at keeping themselves separate from the younger groups for the most part. That’s because its possible to use Facebook without ever interacting with people that you don’t know.

So what are the older Facebook users using the site for? Well, according to a Newsday article, they are using it the same way most people are using it: to find old friends. Professors are also using the site to connect with students. Not everything is the same for various age groups though. As the Newsday article states:

In addition to spending more time on social networks, young people will often have more than one MySpace profile or Facebook page for each of their personas, such as reflecting their artistic or musical tastes.

The older users on the other hand “have already developed fixed identities and are less likely to experiment with online identities.” There is also an interesting thing taking place between generations. One girl I spoke to yesterday said that one of her prior bosses will occasionally challenge her to a game of Scrabulous. As such, she feels it necessary to play the game in order to maintain their relationship.

While the generational gap makes for interesting studies of human behavior, one thing is definite: humans like to interact socially online just as much as they do offline. As to whether or not the boomers will chase away the younger users? So far everything points to a peaceful co-existence among multiple generations on the site. Whether or not that trend will continue, we will just have to wait and see.

Do you foresee any challenges arising due to the wide range of generations on Facebook and other social network sites? Do you have any personal experiences related to this?

Yesterday I spent a large portion of the day at the Boomer Business Summit. While on a panel, I asked the crowd how many people were on Facebook and how many people were on a social network in general. Over half the crowd was on a social network and close to 50 percent were on Facebook. It was pretty surprising. This was also a biased sample because they had come to the panel on social networking for Boomers.

The main lesson that I learned was that this crowd was a highly active group of people that may be wiser but don’t feel older. They are young at heart and still exploring what the world has to offer. I told one person that it’s unfortunate that curiosity is now a unique trait and that I’m pleasantly surprised when I meet a group of inquisitive individuals. This group of people for the most part were involved in leveraging these new technologies to create buzz for their businesses.

There was only one person that I met that was still resisting the changing going on around him but even he wanted to know how to find the most influential blogs in his market (even though he knowingly only read one blog, Perez Hilton). While I often think of early adopters as young individuals, I met a number of early adopters while at the conference including one Boomer who was highly active on Twitter.

The lesson learned is don’t ignore this group of individuals. They are a massive market and you may be surprised just how youthful they still are (I hope this doesn’t sound too much like a young person’s analysis). Also, this group won’t be retiring anytime soon. So don’t forget about this crowd when developing your product or service even if it is on the web.