As someone who lists pinot grigio as a hobby, I was seriously concerned about my grandfather joining Facebook.

I was worried my grandfather would get the wrong idea about me. Or worse yet, hed find out exactly who I was – not the teetotaling granddaughter I try to portray twice a year when I go home.

And thats just what happened: We got to know each other through a social networking site that many 30-somethings havent learned to use, let alone octogenarians.

“I dont browse Facebook much, but I see that it is a way to get to the nitty-gritty of a persons character,” my grandfather explained. “Also a way to do something late at night when I cant sleep.”

Turns out, my grandfather isnt the only one with an AARP card using social networking sites.

Facebook estimates that it has a few million users over the age of 65. MySpace claims to have 6.7 million users age 65 and over on its site. In fact, according to MySpace spokeswoman Jessica Bass, older users are among the sites fastest growing demographic.

Seventy-one-year-old Lynne Bundesen of Santa Fe, N.M., is one of them. Why did she join? “To keep track of what my grandchildren are doing, of course,” she said.

Her grandson, 27-year-old Russell Simon, knows that but doesnt mind.

“It keeps her young to be on there, in more ways than one,” he said. “She puts these very young pictures of herself up there. She was beautiful. Just seeing her when she was young, out on a boat with her hair flowing, it makes me think of her differently.

“But mostly, its so she can spy on us, not so we can learn about her,” he said half-jokingly.

Simon actually has three grandparents on Facebook. And he admits that having them there has changed his online behavior.

“When you do status updates – sometime I forget that theyre on – I have to look at it a different way,” he said.

“I think that these developments might be the death of Facebook,” said Simons friend, Charlie Pabst.

Social networking sites are still predominantly used by a younger population. The median ages of MySpace and Facebook users were 26 and 27 years old, respectively. At the career-focused LinkedIn, it was 40, according to a recent report by the Pew Internet & American Life Project.

But there may be no escaping the onslaught from older relatives. Bundesen also uses Twitter to update her status. “Im adapting to their lifestyle,” she explained.

Like some younger users, my grandfather initially joined looking to connect to old classmates – in his case, any that were still alive.

He wasnt so successful there. But soon, he found that he could use it to stay in touch with grandchildren near and far.

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