Is there anyone over the age of 50 who can get anything beneficial from being registered on Facebook?

I am way over 50 and have become much too fond of facebook. I like being in touch with relatives who are far away and can actually play games on line with them or just check photos of family and events that we once shared. I have been in touch with old classmates and former co-workers and enjoy many games with my teen grandkids. It has annoying points, like invitations to games you don't want to play and there is always identity theft to be concerned about, but overall, it is a great way to stay in touch.

Facebook is great for keeping up with the news of your immediate circle - I've been on it for a few months (yes I'm over 60), and I like being able to view everyone's photographs, and to keep up with what they are doing. An old school friend did track me down, but I haven't used it for that. If I want to find someone I use Friends Reunited, which is much better than Facebook for that sort of thing.

I do play a couple of games regularly, and help others out occasionally when they are doing the same ones.

Its just another way of communicating - I love it !

I am over 50 and am on Facebook. I have found two people that I had lost contact with. One was a former classmate since I registered my high school, and the other one used to work at my place of employment which I also registered. I enjoy Facebook. My girlfriends and I do the gardenhood activity. And, I keep updated with family and friends by the messages and photos they post. It is what you make it!

I'm 67 and I really like facebook. I have connected with relatives who I don't see or write to often but it's easy to post a comment when they mention something on their status -- it makes it easy to see what others are doing. That is, it's easy if everyone contributes but if they just sit there waiting for others to post then there could be a lot of people sitting around waiting. You have to participate to get anything out of it -- just like Y!A.

The other thing is that if people would use their real name and location, it would be easier to find old friends and relatives. I think it is relatively safe because you don't have to accept a friend request from anyone you don't know or don't want to connect with. There are a few things you shouldn't do on FB -- one is don't put your full birth date on display, just use month and day if that much because it can be used by people who mean you no good.

I guess my take on it is that if you just join but then don't connect with others and never post what you are doing, it can be pretty boring. On the other hand, if you and your friends use it as a means to keep others informed about your activities and to read about theirs then it is great. I keep track of my daughter, her boy friend, my granddaughter, some of their friends, plus some of my other relatives and friends. There are groups you can join such as alumni groups from schools you attended, and church groups. If you have an interest in something, there's probably a group out there dedicated to that interest -- you just have to look for them.

As for the games that someone mentioned, if you like to play them, find out which of your friends doesn't like them and don't annoy them with requests. I don't like the games part and ignore any requests from those who do play them.

Hope that helps.

The only reason I signed up on Facebook was to drop in on my nephews and nieces pages to see what they are up to. One of my nieces is doing some humanistic things in underdeveloped places in Tibet, China, Mongolia and India and she (with some friends) have established an organization to do this work--and she has Facebook pages for this. Since she lives on the opposite coast from me and spends her vacation time in China/India/Tibet so I seldom get to see her so this is my way of keeping up. I don't otherwise find it of any use to me. I don't want to open my life to a whole bunch of strangers--we all might be too wise to need the anonymous attention these young folks seem to crave. We senior folks may be more aware of the type of trouble exposing so much of your life can get you (I hear that some idiots even post "Me & my family will be away on vacation for a month" and home burglers have used info to clean out their house).

I was "coaxed" into joining by a niece, telling me I just had to do this. It's been several months and I don't see the point of it for myself. In fact, I rarely get on it anymore because one day I read a post that my niece put on there about her texting while driving. I gave her my 2 cents worth of opinion about it. She didn't like my opinion. So, I stay away from FB now because I don't really want to know what's being written on the "walls". I guess the younger crowd must get something out of it though.

I'm a senior and I haven't been in fb that long but initially I started it out to list musicians, tv shows, weather, news in my area, places to go in my area, things to eat (dairy queen and dominoes and such) and along came the people who wanted to discuss politics and set t-parties and such so I put those on hold. I have genealogy friends on there and people I've worked with from overseas and a couple of genealogy contacts. Occasionally someone wants to add their name so I check them out (approve them; see what kind of talk they do) and then their comments show up on my fb page (if and when I want that). Although there is an IM area I don't get involved in that. My IM's are through my email and thru Yahoo IM. I also belong to flixter, friendfinder, hi5, and a couple others along with twitter. I backed out of myspace. For facebook you'd either type in their name or type in their email address and invite them to your facebook website.

I get on facebook to see what my grown children (mid thirties) are doing. Also if one of my kids is on there I know he is at work.....and if I don't see him on there for a while thats when I know he has been drinking and not making it to work! Thats pretty horrible huh?

But really I have a friend who is 60 and she goes on all the time. I find it a bit boring, and I like YA allot better.

Yes I am over 60 and have checked it out but can not find people I know because the organisation of Facebook seems to be pathetic. You can not identify anybody unless you get them as friends. I wanted to trace somebody I sailed with many years ago by his first and second name. I found over forty people with that but in most cases it did not indicate what country they were from, their age or anything else about them. so I tried to ask one to be my friend who I thought might be the right one but got somebody different from Australia who rejected me because she did not know me. One person says "Facebook works" though fails to say how and another says she found somebody who was at same High school as herself. but please tell me how the hell she managed to find somebody else's High school when it will not release such information about anybody whatsoever unless they accept you as a friend? And why does it not allow people to indicate what town or even what continent they live in after their name? To me the whole system is just totally barmy?

I am 48 and my high school class has a very large presence on facebook. It's a great way to stay connected with old classmates, former military buddies or anybody from the past.