Try being sociable online these days and you are confronted by flashing neon fonts and drunken camphone footage. Heaving social networks such as Facebook and Bebo have been adopted by more than two in three 16- to 24-year-olds, while someone’s mobile number is rapidly being replaced by the MySpace page as the preferred contact.
Don’t be daunted, however: a second wave of older surfers is hitting these sites to indulge their own passions and interests — professional as well as social.
Nielsen/NetRatings reveals that two in five MySpace members in the UK are over 35. There are MySpace groups for the avant-garde composer John Cage and the paintings of Caravaggio. YouTube, the video jukebox, provides a hotline to troops in action on the battlefields of Afghanistan and Iraq, and its latest star is a 78-year-old, motorbike-loving British pensioner, who identifies himself only as geriatric1927 and gently recalls episodes from his life.
Many adults get exactly the same buzz as their children when they first stumble into an online community. “I came on here to see what my 16-year-old daughter got up to,” confesses Yvette, 46, a British mum, whose MySpace profile reveals she loves red wine, theatre and 1950s vintage clothes. “I was so outraged and consumed with jealousy that I had to sign up myself.” Her customised home page is a glorious relief from the hyperactive, trippy monstrosities of younger members: Jackie Wilson’s Higher and Higher plays, there’s a backdrop of stylish black-and-white shots of Audrey Hepburn, and the text is easy to read. Most important, with 69 friends, Yvette keeps her network small.
Teenage web whizzes have been dubbed digital natives because they were born clicking in the digital universe. More mortal adults have had to earn their spurs as digital immigrants, and for them, too, social networks have become a source of knowledge, ideas and money: guitar teachers now regularly upload tuition videos, mothers on the same street can band together to discuss the trials of parenthood and entrepreneurs can source millions for start-up ideas at switched-on business sites.
As online social networks mature, they must diversify the attractions that keep people coming back. New portals cater for the concerns and causes of grown-ups, rather than simply acting as windows for shameless teenage exhibitionism. The networking Top 10, according to Nielsen, is dominated by these specific interests: finding lost relatives (www.genesreunited.co.uk); rebuilding family trees (www.ancestry.co.uk); and photo-sharing (www.ringo.com). There are even social networks that hook up happy campers (www.caravannersreunited.com).
“You’ll see more of these niche networks showing up,” says Boris Pfeiffer, general manager of Tickle International, itself a niche network. Targeting thirtysomething Bridget Jones types, Uk.tickle re-creates the frisson of coffee-break tittle-tattle with a stream of online quizzes (“What kind of kisser are you?”) and IQ tests to take and share with friends. As with MySpace, two in five of its audience are 35 or over. Unlike other online social networks, it steers clear of features such as blogging and DIY home pages. “If you want to build your own space on the web, there are enough social-networking sites where you can,” Pfeiffer says.
For committed, like-minded communities, turn to the business networks. Where the golf club or the local chamber of commerce was once the vital place for informal networking, today the flesh is pressed online between business people and professionals, irrespective of location.
“Any site where people have knowledge to share with others can be built onto a social network,” says Nate Elliott, an analyst at Jupiter Research. “When you look at what people do on these sites, they talk to each other. The really interesting niche applications of social networking will be in areas where these conversations are useful to the parties involved. Business is a great example. Travel is another.”
It’s inevitable that the online business networking community is disproportionately full of touchy-feely life coaches looking for fresh blood, but sites such as LinkedIn, Open BC and A Small World (if you can gain access) are taken seriously by deal-makers as sources of contacts, ideas and, vitally, financial muscle.
However, members of social networks must be wary of the sheer amount of information that can be, and is, declared publicly online. In cyberspace, one in 10 people falls victim to identity theft — a sobering thought. If you browse Ecademy, a UK-based community for entrepreneurs, salespeople and freelancers, for a few minutes, you can find mobile-phone numbers and e-mail addresses as members seek advice and advertise skills and services. Ecademy claims that it has 80,000 members, many self-employed, who offer, in the words of one member, “much more help and support than in the real world, where people are quite cagey”, though there’s plenty of salesmanship on show, too.
Sites such as Passado encourage members to list CVs and schools, while Bebo pages often reveal members’ favourite pubs and other hangouts. Dr Stephen Castell, an independent consultant specialising in online security, fears a “destruction of trust” when people communicate in a purely digital form.
“How do I check what you are saying?” he asks. “It can be compromised. Someone could hack into your details and you’d never know.”
