Facebook use by the Less-frequently Using Demographic : A qualitative study

Abstract: This is a qualitative, phenomenological study of 8 people 58-73 and their use of Facebook. The data was collected through interviews and observation of participants' Facebook page and posts. The results showed that these people, who belong to a demographic that uses Facebook less frequently, are motivated to join Facebook out of a desire to communicate, out of curiosity, love of new technology and work. Their main use of Facebook is communicating and keeping in touch, especially with people who live at a great distance, which confirmed previous literature. This was followed by promoting their interests and as a news source. Diverging from previous literature where privacy was found to be a major concern, 3 out of 8 participants claimed they were not concerned at all; this was related to their having found ways to keep things they didn't want revealed off Facebook and was probably due to their technical skills. Recommendations are made for making Facebook and other social networking sites more attractive and accessible to people of this demographic.