As of a week ago, I’m part of a relatively small demographic:  I’m 51 years old, and I now have a twitter account.

This is huge, for me, really — I’ve always thought of myself as being relatively savvy when it comes to keeping up with with technology, but Twitter slipped by me.  But I’m beginning to “get it” and it’s going to be lots of fun.

Although twitter usage (at this point, anyway) declines significantly in the 45+ population, there are more of us out there than I realized — according to a 2012 report on social networking demographics, more than half of social media users are between the ages of 25 and 44, BUT, 55% of Twitter users in that age group are over the age of 35.  And, surely, these averages will  increase on a yearly basis.

10,000 4th Cousins

I was telling a friend of mine that I got an account, and she said, how does that whole thing work?  I told her that I believe it’s an exponential kind of thing, kind of like how it is with 4th cousins.  As unbelievable as it may sound, the average person has roughly 10,000 4th cousins, because with every generation, the number of a person’s cousins multiplies exponentially.

So, I think that’s how this twitter thing works; with each new friend you follow, you gain a few followers, who you then follow, then you get a few more, and it starts growing, and that’s kinda neat, really, because there are some incredibly interesting people out there. Since I’ve started blogging, all of my Twitter friends are other bloggers and most are, yes, younger than I am, but there are very cool.

So, to all of you who are over 45 and have been reluctant to set up an account, I will say this:  jump on in, the water’s fine!