Your mom is on facebook.com

Like many Princetonians, Stephanie Anderson has a profile on facebook.com, replete with photo albums, groups and a lengthy list of interests.

But Anderson isn't your typical Facebook user. A member of the Class of 1974, she lists "the usual mom stuff" as her first item under "activities" — and many of the posts on her wall are by her daughter, a senior in high school.

Anderson is one of a growing number of older Facebook members, including a number of Princeton alumni, who are exploring territory once exclusive to Generation Y. The trend comes after Facebook, once limited to college students and then expanded to include high school students, became an open network site last September.

Alumni who are part of this new wave of mature Facebook-surfers cited diverse reasons for joining, ranging from a desire to keep tabs on their children to simple curiosity about all the hype the site has generated.

"I think that a common thread for older people joining Facebook will be that they have a college-age child and want to keep up with that child's life, to a certain extent," Anderson said in an e-mail.

Mary Gregory '75, whose 18-year-old daughter is a freshman at Kenyon College and a Facebook member, said curiosity and the motherly instinct both contributed to her decision to join the site. "I did want to see what it was and why people seemed excited about it," she said. "I [also] wanted to make sure that my daughter would be relatively safe and that the photos on her site were appropriate."

But for parents like Gregory and Anderson, a feature on Facebook allowing students to set limited profiles may prevent them from seeing all aspects of their children's lives.

"My daughter doesn't allow me to view all her wall posts or see all her photo albums," Anderson said. "So I can't say that I know everything that is going on."

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Not all adult Facebook members use the site primarily as a parental tool. Others find it a valuable way to reconnect with old friends who have also decided to venture into the world of online networking.

Charlie Brown '75 experienced one such blast from the past when he joined Facebook.

"To my surprise, a high school classmate I hadn't seen or heard from in 35 years contacted me, saying my class had a high school reunion and friends lamented they had lost track of me," Brown said. "One of them [had] checked out Facebook and found me, and we've been in regular touch ever since."

Started in February 2004 as the brainchild of then Harvard student Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook currently attracts 17 million users per day and employs 200 staff members. Mozelle Thompson GS '76, a Facebook policy consultant and site member himself, said many older members view Facebook as a business opportunity and way to stay connected with friends.

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He added that he particularly enjoys having access to up-to-date information on his acquaintances' activities.

"Although some people had reservations about it at first, my favorite feature on Facebook is news feed," Thompson said. "It's very addictive, and I think it's important that you do spend some time seeing what your friends are doing."

Nevertheless, some older alumni said the site is less useful for them than it might be for current students who employ it as an integral part of their social lives.

"[Facebook] doesn't really have much functionality for me, as I encounter most of my friends in other venues," Jeff DeMarco '77 said.

Other alumni expressed a different concern, admitting that profile-surfing can take up valuable time that could be spent more productively, even as it facilitates networking and socializing.

Gregory said she sees both positive and negative aspects of her Facebook membership.

"On the one hand, I think Facebook is a potential time-sink," she said. "On the other, it's a very efficient and fun way to keep up with large numbers of friends.

Anderson added, however, that she sometimes wonders if the site's social offerings may sacrifice one-on-one friendships for the sake of efficiency. "The letters from college that I remember handwriting now seem very archaic — but also more personal and authentic," she said.