Older adults have become Facebook's fastest growing demographic and are joining the social network to stay connected, researchers including one of Indian-origin have found.
They suggest that seniors want to make new connections, just like college kids who joined the site decades ago.
"Earlier studies suggest a positive relationship between bonding and bridging social capital and Facebook use among college students," said Eun Hwa Jung from Pennsylvania State University (PSU) in the US.
"Our study extends this finding to senior citizens," said Jung.
In the study, the desire to stay connected to family and keep in touch with old friends - social bonding - was the best predictor of Facebook adoption and use, followed closely by the desire to find and communicate with like-minded people - social bridging.
Curiosity is also another motivation for senior Facebook users, Jung said.
"Because they are now familiar with social networking technology, some seniors are just starting to use Facebook out of curiosity," she said.
"Older adults who are motivated by social bonding and curiosity tend to use Facebook as a form of social surveillance," said S Shyam Sundar from PSU.
"Surveillance is the idea that you are checking out what people are up to. This is something that many older adults do. They want to see how their kids are doing and, especially, what their grandkids are doing," said Sundar.
However, seniors were not motivated to actively participate on Facebook when family and friends prod them to use the site, researchers said.
"When senior citizens respond to requests to join Facebook, that tends to be a negative predictor of use," said Sundar.
Older adults also tend to use Facebook features that their younger counterparts favour, researchers said.
"Our findings show that message-interactivity features - for example the chatting function and wall posting - are the dominant activities for older adults' Facebook use," said Jung.
Seniors in their sample visited Facebook 2.46 times a day and stayed on the site for a little over 35 minutes each day, researchers said.
"Those who are motivated by social bonding are more likely to use the Like button, which shows the importance of simplicity in interface design for senior citizens," said Sundar.
Researchers conducted an online survey with 352 adults whose ages ranged from 60 to 86. A total of 184 - or 52.3 per cent - were female and 168 - or 47.7 per cent - were male.
The findings were published in the journal Computers in Human Behaviour.
