Do adults use facebook? My sister joined it (age 45) and wants me to join. I’m not really interested.
Simple answer: no. I’m 28. My friends on Facebook include my mother and her sister, half of my primary school class, a similar number from my department at university, and one of the lecturers there. And most of my current friends.
In fact, it never was targeted at teens: it originally was a networking site for higher education students, and then gradually was opened up to all-comers.
Here’s a link to some stats from about a year ago, showing about 1/2 above college age.
No. There is even a Straight Dope group on Facebook.
It started out mainly for college kids, but it isn’t really restricted toward that demographic.
Here is a site that has some age statistics.
Here is another one.
60% of their users are 18-24 year olds. The numbers dwindle after you hit the age of 35.
What Lakai said, but I have a minor nitpick. It started out only for college students, and one needed an @xxx.edu address that had already been added to the FaceBook community.
It was originally college kids only (as Santo Rugger added), with a lot of security and simplicity that MySpace lacked, then college aged kids were included as well, then high school kids, then they started MySpacing it up, and anybody’s allowed in now.
What’s the name of it? I tried searching “Straight Dope” and it found no results.
I am 35 and my wife is 36. We use Facebook daily. Its a great tool for keeping up with folks.
I’m 18, leaving all my highschool friends and want to keep in touch with them yet I’m completely stubborn about getting a facebook or myspace. Not that I can think of a good, logical reason other than “'just because.”* So there are plenty of us teens who DON’T use it as well. 
*The conversation tends to go thusly.
Moved from General Questions to In My Humble Opinion; fixed spelling in title.
Gfactor
General Questions Moderator
I’m 35 and started using it because my old firm was on the network and a lot of people used it. A lot of people are on there from 22 year old interns to 40-something managing directors.
And actually, one of my old high school buddies reached out to me the other day.
I joined recently when I was invited to join a particular book club there. Some old friends found me, which has been quite nice.
Mrs PIper and I have an account, and we’re definitely not teens. She uses it more than I do, but that’s because more of her friends have accounts. She also loves the Scrabulous game, and usually has about a dozen games going at once.
I’m 32 and I’m on Facebook, along with many of my 30-something friends (including a lot of former high school and college classmates, as well as some family members too). A lot of local politicians and political organizations have presences on Facebook, so it’s a great way to keep current with the local political scene, for me.
So no, ever since they opened it to the general public more than a year ago, it’s not just for teens.
P.S. Just another plug for our Facebook group, Straight Dopers. Please join if you haven’t already! Also feel free to post photos you may have of any Dope fests or gatherings.
Okay, I’d be part of the age group that makes up 3.4%. That tells me I don’t really belong there.
Thanks for the answers!
I’m nearly 50.
Just recently found a friend whom I had thought had pretty-much self-destructed in high-school on Facebook. I had wondered about what happened to him for over 20 years. Turns out he managed to pull out of the dive before hitting the ground. Had a bit of a rocky go. Now he has a few quirks, but he’s OK. If only for answering that question, I will always be grateful to Facebook.
No, that tells you you are in an age group that makes up 3.4%. There are probably many reasons why that number is low (less computer literate, fewer computer literate friends, less need for networking, etc.) It’s not like a community where you can belong or not belong, you make up your own community from your list of friends. You can use it as much or as little as you like. I use it for only a few things. I update my personal message fairly often so my mother knows where I am and that I’m safe (I travel around a bit,) I use it as a messaging service, and I use it to share my own pictures with members of my family and to share favorite youtube clips. When I recently gave birth to my second daughter, with some assistance from my wife, I used it to quickly send a notice of the news and a photo, it was easier than sending an email, mainly because I don’t have email addresses for everyone.
You may not find it useful, but you can’t “not belong.”
A word of warning, you will get a lot of stuff that is not far removed from spam, don’t let that put you off, it can be blocked. You also may like that side of it anyway.
P.S., I’m 34 (I think, I was born in June 1974, ah no, I’m 33.)