Why Your Grandpa Is On Facebook

“Old people” on Facebook: They couldn’t beat it, so they joined it.

But why? And how did they hear about social media in the first place? They can’t all be simply stalking their younger relatives, can they?

A new study from the AARP — that’s the American Association of Retired Persons — shows that baby boomers in the 50-years-old-or-better age bracket are cool with the Internet (), down with Facebook, hip to the iPad and not just using the web to spy on their kids and grandkids.

The AARP spent some time last month interviewing 1,360 adults over the phone. They found that more than a quarter (27%) of Americans age 50 and older use social networks. Facebook is the most popular — in fact, 23% of all survey respondents said they preferred it to sites such as MySpace (), LinkedIn () and Twitter. Another study earlier this year from eMarketer showed that boomers and seniors were flocking to Facebook, again showing a strong preference for this site over Twitter and MySpace — all this in spite of the fact that another survey showed older Americans reported hearing an awful lot of bad news and media coverage about Facebook.

When it comes to general web surfing, 49% of respondents between the ages of 50 and 64 and 40% of all adults age 50 and older, said they consider themselves extremely or very comfortable using the Internet. In other words, we’re very close to seeing the majority of senior citizens embracing the web as a content medium and communication tool.