“Boomer”: my favorite passive aggressive way to refer to Baby Boomers. I was trying to figure out a title that wasn’t as offensive as “Shut up, Boomer,” a common phrase on Twitter. Baby Boomers are pretty interesting to me: they prefer cable, still read the newspaper, and are the dominant target market in infomercials. What interests me about them the most is their social media use.

The research found online was pretty predictable: Boomers don’t have a dominating presence online. However, I did find that 20% of Twitter users are 55+, which was pretty interesting find. Twitter a constant stream of information with a plethora of hashtags; while it supports media such as photo and video, it’s much more text based than other social media such as Facebook, which is the social media site most commonly linked to Baby Boomers.

I think Facebook is a favorite among Baby Boomers because not only does it allow them to connect with friends and family in a way that was never attainable to them before, but it is eye candy full of videos, photos, games, and more. This is a visually stimulating way of advertising product and pretty lucrative for companies who deal with weight loss supplements, political campaigns, life insurance, and other Boomers’ interests.

Maybe it’s about time we give the Boomers their credit for being social media savvy, at least in some social media sites.