Anyone have suggestions for a social networking site for the over 40 crowd? All I know about is Friendster, MySpace & FaceBook. Perhaps I am wrong, but it seems like that they are primarily for the high school / college age folks.
One reason for asking is a desire to reacquaint myself with old friends etc, so perhaps I may have to use one of those heavy traffic sites mentioned above.
Dave
Facebook was originally aimed exclusively at college students (and, as a member of the site in that era, sometimes I do still wish it was that way), but it has grown to encompass quite a lot of folks. You’ll have to duck the Super-Duper-Ultra-Vampire-Zombie-Free-Sticker-Graffiti-Poke-Wall apps, but doing so results in a surprisingly essential tool for keeping up with folks from all over. (And, in a big boost for me, it has a rather decent iPhone app. No one is safe from my pokes now! Fwahaahaa! ;))
You’d be surprised how many old timers are roaming the pages (legitimately).
Here is an overview of social networking sites. I am currently in college, but I feel this is reasonably objective.
Myspace - oriented toward a younger demographic (high school or college). Possibly a little harder to get in touch with people as there is no particular network system - e.g., you’re not in a set for your state or your alma mater, even if you list that information.
Facebook - To second Billfred, this social networking website has become a pretty widespread tool for many demographics. I’m honored to be friends with a few mentors on there, and it is an excellent way to keep in touch with people. They’re trying to do a workaround with applications right now, so hopefully that will happen soon. However, there can be a lot of annoying stuff to wade through (e.g., games / zombies / random other apps).
One important thing if you choose this one - set your privacy options high. Facebook can and will give your info to third parties, and there are a few settings you have to go through to ensure that doesn’t happen (unless you’re OK with it in which case less worry).
LinkedIn - I’m kind of new to LinkedIn, but I would say this is probably the best of the three for the professional crowd. More and more people create profiles every day, and the layout is very simple and devoid of random apps. This is very much a professional network and useful to access if you don’t really want that much fluff (e.g., interests, hobbies).
I have profiles both for LinkedIn and Facebook and the combination of those seems to work fairly well. Happy socializing!