By Luis Zaffirini

One of the issues we continually face in the State Development Department in our daily dealings with our thousands of local chapters and with pro-life leaders at our annual Convention is the generational gap. Groups have a core of very active membership some of whom have been involved since the organizations were formed in the 1960s and 1970s. In the same community there are large numbers of young pro-life women and men who want to be actively involved, but neither age group knows how to approach the other.

It turns out a terrific way to bridge the gap, so to speak, is through social media.

Take Facebook for example. Facebook began as a social networking site exclusively for college students and later became open to the general public. As a result, in the beginning the majority of its users were younger.

But the demographic landscape of this wildly popular website has changed dramatically, especially in the last couple years.

According to iStrategyLabs, in the first half of 2009, the largest growth by age group in Facebook users was 55-and-up-- a staggering 513.7% increase from January to July 2009. (See http://mashable.com/2009/07/07/facebook-users-older.)

Pew Internet has even more data in a recent report. "Young adults continue to be the heaviest users of social media, but their growth pales in comparison with recent gains made by older users," explains Mary Madden, Senior Research Specialist and author of the report. "Email is still the primary way that older users maintain contact with friends, families and colleagues, but many older users now rely on social network platforms to help manage their daily communications." (See http://pewinternet.org/Reports/2010/Older-Adults-and-Social-Media.aspx.)

What this means is that the demographics of the social networking population are shifting to more closely resemble that of the general population. And that is a good thing--a very good thing--for the population in general, and pro-lifers in particular.

Here's why.

One of the most important things that anyone wishing to grow their chapter internet presence can do is to simply throw themselves into these social media tools like Twitter, Facebook, and blogging. It's a perfect fit really.

Older members of established right-to-life groups are as eager to connect with the younger pro-life generation as the younger ones are. And young pro-lifers who have already made embracing and regularly using internet resources a part of their daily lives want to see it embraced and used by the groups they want to be a part of. Both age groups have so much to gain and so much to share.

But if the younger generation--many of whom have not lived without the internet--have a lot to teach about current technological advances in networking, then they also have a lot to learn from pro-lifers who've been activists for decades about the art of communication and publication. For example, established pro-lifers have a higher threshold for restraint in what they publish about themselves, in the manner they represent themselves, and in their timing. And without this respect for the audience, there are built-in limits to your effectiveness.

The keys to successfully employing the web to build up your local group and bridge the generational gap are simple: (1) use it even if you're a little lost when you first start; (2) connect locally and (3) and approach one other knowing we each have a lot to teach and to learn from one another.

Be sure to send your comments to daveandrusko@gmail.com. Thank you!