More On The 'Demographics Is Destiny' Meme

Traditional media seem all aglow with the neat and tidy notion that different agre groups will naturally gravitate to separate social networks. Kind of like the Web does LeisureWorld:

[from The Graying of the Web - New York Times by Matt Richel]

[...]

Social networking has so far focused mainly on businesspeople and young people because they are tech-savvy and are treasured by Madison Avenue.

[And because the use the web a lot, which leads to the likelihood of real money.]

But there are 78 million boomers — roughly three times the number of teenagers — and most of them are Internet users who learned computer skills in the workplace. Indeed, the number of Internet users who are older than 55 is roughly the same as those who are aged 18 to 34, according to Nielsen/NetRatings, a market research firm.

TeeBeeDee’s founder is Robin Wolaner, who in 1987 created Parenting magazine. That year, at least seven magazines focused on being a parent were started, and Ms. Wolaner said she was seeing the same sudden recognition of a need for Internet publishers to respond to the demands of older Americans.

She came up with the idea for the site, she said, “when I was sitting around with friends and we said, ‘We’re not going to hang out at the AARP site. What is there for us?’ ” (Plus, she said, she wanted to find a community where she could discuss her interest in getting an eye lift).

“There’s a recognition that this generation now uses the Internet just like younger people,” she said. “The one thing this generation hasn’t done yet is network online.”

[Uh... and the theory is that if you build it they will come right? Except that in general you don't create online communities, you mediate existing ones.]

The question is whether they’ll want to network in large enough numbers to justify the tens of millions of dollars going into the space. Indeed, the interest from entrepreneurs and venture capitalists has led to a mini-boom in sites that cater to baby boomers, creating what they say is both critical mass and a likely falling out.

More like a mini-bubble, where a bunch of graying entrepreneurs and social-network-happy investors are chasing a dream: that people want segregated worlds on line. That older folks want to hang only with older folks. But it runs counter the nature os social networks and the way the Web has evolved.

Connection transcends demographics. We have to hope it does, or else the bullshit line that the old media idiots used to throw out as a condemnation of the blogosphere -- just an echo chamber where people can find people with exactly the same parochial viewpoints to agree with -- may become the basis of sound business models. I don't buy it.

While some cultural boundaries have real meaning on the Web (like language-oriented, cultural, and religious sites, for example) the fact is that everything we have learned about the web suggests that attempts to create demographic walls based on age will fail.