现在，我们该对社交游戏只是年轻人和大学生的专例这一说法进行矫正了，一项由Pew互联网和美国生活工程共同发起的调查显示，美国老年人从未像今天这样广泛融入社交网站。

该调查表明，年龄在50岁以上的美国社交网站用户超过4成，这一数据是去年的双倍。尽管年轻人仍然是社交网站的主力军（社交网站上几乎86%用户的年龄集中在18-29岁之间），但老年人却是数量增长最快的用户群体。

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虽然Pew互联网的调查并没有将老年游戏玩家从所有老年人用户中剥离出来，但这一数据仍然足以说明，这些用户群体的增长与社区游戏的巨大吸引力不无关系。根据Popcap今年2月份的调查显示，美国46%的社区游戏玩家的年龄都在50岁以上，而这一年龄层的互联网用户仅为30%，可见其比重之大。

即便这些年老社交网站用户并不参与社区游戏，他们的增长数量也必将引起游戏开发商的注意，引导开发商针对这一群体设计符合他们口味的互动游戏。

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Seniors flocking to social networks: Are they playing games?

TweetThe image of social networks as a place just for teens and college kids continues to fall away thanks to a new study from the Pew Internet and American Life Project showing older Americans using social networks in larger numbers than ever before.

Over 40 percent of American Internet users 50 and older now use social networking sites, according to the study, nearly doubling their proportion from only a year ago. While young people are still the most active social networkers (86% of 18-29 year olds are on a social network), older Americans represent the fastest growing demographic for the sites.

While the Pew study didn’t break out game use among these older social network users, it stands to reason that some of the group’s increase in numbers is being driven by the popularity of social games. A Popcap study from February found that 46 percent of social gamers in the US were at least 50 years old, far outpacing the 30 percent or so of total internet users in that age group.

Even if those older social networkers aren’t gaming now, it’s likely their rising numbers will lead to more and more social game developers targeting their games at this growing audience.(source:games)