Paul Baier, a research consultant in Boston, paid his 14-year old Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) addict daughter a good $200 to take a break from the social networking site until summer.
According to a post on his blog, Baier posted an image of the “Facebook Deactivation Agreement,” with his daughter, Rachael, signed by both parties on the terms that the teen would deactivate her social nertworking account from the past Monday until June 26. In exchange of this promise, the father agreed to pay his daughter $50 in April and the remainder amount in June, upon completion of the agreement.
“He/she will have access to my Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) to change the password and to deactivate the account,” the contract reads. “This will prevent me from re-activating the account in the future.”
“She approached me. She has been frustrated she hasn’t been able to find a babysitting job and she has been looking for ways to get cash,” Baier told ABC News. “So she asked, ‘If I didn’t use Facebook for so long would you pay me?'”
Knowing his daughter is a Facebook addict and spends hours on the site everyday, Baier at first didn’t consider the fact that his daughter was serious when she asked him, “If I didn’t use Facebook for so long would you pay me?'” But the daughter demanded her father to prepare the paper work and agreed to sign a contract stating the terms of her break from Facebook.
Baier believes that his daughter will keep her part of the promise. However, considering the amount of time she has spent on the social site, he took the permission to change the password every now and then to keep her from activating her account.
In the parallel world, while the two-third of U.S Facebook users have taken a break from Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) for “several weeks or more”, Kirchmaier, 105, who is also California’s oldest licensed driver and the University of Chicago’s oldest living former student, joined Facebook last month in the honor of her 105th birthday.
“I’ve been contacted by such wonderful people and received such nice messages and pictures from people all over the world,” Kirchmaier said. “I’m so humbled by all the interest in me.”
Descending from the age of telegraphs and rotary dial phones, Kirchmaier, despite her age and wide generational gap, embraces the idea of social media as it keeps her connected with her friends and family.
ABCNews writes that the old lady said she’s especially interested to see how many people log on to light a virtual candle in her honor, a symbol they’ve liked the fan page of Direct Relief.
Kirchmaier has more than 20,000 Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) friends and she lists the University of Chicago, the actress Jane Lynch and the Cheesecake Factory among her “likes.”
Facebook’s recent demographics show a significant growth in the old age user group over the past few years. According to a 2012 survey by the Pew Research Center’s Internet and American Life Project, retirees aged 65 and older are the fastest-growing group of social networkers on social sites such as Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB), Linkedin Corporation (NYSE:LNKD) and MySpace.
Pew’s study was conducted in December 2012, and included 1,006 U.S. adults. It has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.6 percentage points.
