He is oblivious to the concepts of nettiquette, spam and social networking, but, given his age it's understandable.
I recently helped my father (also in his 50's) join Facebook, and I wouldn't be surprised if he goes on a friending spree. He already has a history of sending "free" greeting cards to anyone whose email address he has. In fact, reading this made me aware of the need to make sure he isn't inadvertently abusing Facebook.
Geez, this has nothing to do with his age and everything to do with his level of web experience. Your comment is pretty close to saying "giving his race" or "given his country of origin".
I believe ern's comment was right on the mark. We have to remember that older people - bring their own set of affordances to the table. They're used to thinking about things in a pre-computer world, and have to get used to the models of thinking (unnatural models, I must add) computers force upon us.
I looked at the wording after I posted the comment, and wondered if it would offend anyone.
It wasn't meant as an ageist statement, but I think it's a safe bet that the majority of older people (hackers aside) are late adopters. His own son told him "If you're on Facebook, it's over."
It would be interesting to see demographics of FB users. I would bet recent trends shift toward more older users and fewer younger users. If their user base is shifting that way, then it's over for the 18-24 age group, but the boomers will create new behavior/usage models that FB would be well to exploit. That age group has more money and is about to have more leisure time as they retire. Advertisers couldn't wire money to FB accounts fast enough to target that market. Think BoomerBook.
I believe ern's comment was right on the mark. We have to remember that the elderly bring their own set of affordances to the table. They're used to thinking about things in a pre-computer world, and have to get used to the models of thinking (unnatural models, I must add) computers force upon us.
I recently helped my father (also in his 50's) join Facebook, and I wouldn't be surprised if he goes on a friending spree. He already has a history of sending "free" greeting cards to anyone whose email address he has. In fact, reading this made me aware of the need to make sure he isn't inadvertently abusing Facebook.