While social networking is seen as an activity dominated by younger generations, new research shows Baby Boomers are getting into  the game as well.  At least, the younger cohorts of Baby Boomers — the ones that missed Woodstock because it would have taken them way past their bedtimes.

Continuum Crew recently conducted a survey that dissected the attitudes and activities of Baby Boomers – those born between 1946 and 1964 — and the rest of the world. But, as this survey reminds us, we can’t view Baby Boomers as a single homogeneous group with the same attitudes and life experiences. There’s the loud and sassy bunch that had plenty of tantrums — “Generation Ike,” born between 1946 and 1954 — that upended society like nothing before or since. Then, there’s their younger siblings — “Generation Jones,” born between 1954 and 1964 — that have a different, mellower worldview, and came of age in the 1970s.

Generation Jones appears to be taking to social networking in a significant way, almost as much as Generation Xers, who already have a reputation for their computer savvy.

Consider these survey findings in terms of social network adoption — the percentage maintaining a page on one of these sites. Note that the GJers are slightly more active with Twitter and LinkedIn than their younger counterparts:

Social networking site             Ikes    GenJones     Gen X

Facebook                              39%        43%            50%

Twitter                                  5%          15%            14%

LinkedIn                                6%           11%           10%

MySpace                               11%          22%           29%

Interestingly, Continuum Crew notes that a majority of Boomers joined Facebook within the last six months. (Fifty-five percent of online GJers, versus 45% of GenXers.)  even dissected a growing active portion of Generation Jones that appears to plunging even deeper into social media, a portion it tags as “Social Media Mavens.”  The profile of this group is one that is heavily connected, exploring and expanding their networks, the survey shows. Social Media Mavens have more frequent contact with individuals across all types of groups within their social network, not just family or neighbors, but issue-oriented groups and co-workers as well (73% responded ‘People often come to me for advice’). Not merely amassing ‘friends’ or ‘connections’ within these networks, they are communicating regularly. They also have more face-to-face contact and use smart phones more than other Boomers or Generation Jones respondents (78% responded ‘New technology plays an important role in my life’).

They are equally likely to be male as female (53% of this subsegment), which defies the stereotypical female profile of the voracious social media consumer. Of this Social Media Maven group are more likely than the other segments to own their own business (22%), most likely to engage in volunteer activity and to have the highest household income. Social Media Mavens are more likely to try new products, technologies and seek new experiences. They are recommenders who embrace the role of technology in their connected lives.

Lori Bitter, president of Continuum Crew, had this to say about Generation Jones social networkers: “The aging of America is shaping global marketing trends and no one is fueling the zeitgeist more than Boomers, who are craving a story and a reason to align themselves with a brand. Although they are the ‘have-it-my-way’ generation, many companies are missing the invitation and the opportunity to personalize their message.”

Jonathan Pontell, who coined the term for 53 million-member-strong Generational Jones, describes this generation as stuck “between Woodstock and Lollapalooza:”

So who are we? We are practical idealists, forged in the fires of social upheaval while too young to play a part. The name “Generation Jones” derives from a number of sources, including our historical anonymity, the ‘keeping up with the Joneses’ competition of our populous birth years, and sensibilities coupling the mainstream with ironic cool. But above all, the name borrows from the slang term ‘jonesin” that we as teens popularized to broadly convey any intense craving.”

President Obama and Michelle Obama are members of Generation Jones. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke is also a member. So is Sarah Palin and Simon Cowell.

Marketing Guru Jim Welch (longtime head of marketing for Hallmark Cards) says members of this generation  have different memories of events associated with baby boomers. But this is a prime group for business to target. They are “still longing for fulfillment,” he says.  “They are individuals that are much more open to influence at this point in their lives.  They are very open to change, and considering change. They are much more open to being persuadable, and open to being persuadable to trying new things.”

At the younger end of the scale, even Generation Y doesn’t fit so neatly into a single definition or value set.  Brad Stone, writing in the New York Times, says “the ever-accelerating pace of technological change may be minting a series of mini-generation gaps, with each group of children uniquely influenced by the tech tools available in their formative stages of development.”

For example, today’s pre-school children think nothing of playing computer games and even fiddling with smartphones. Teenagers are fully immersed in social networking and text messaging. 20-somethings are more inclined to still be using email. The younger they are, the more likely they are multitaskers — typing messages into Facebook, text messaging, and watching television all at the same time.

The pace of technology is shaping generational perceptions at a rapid pace, as cited by Lee Rainie, director of the Pew Research Center’s Internet and American Life Project:

“People two, three or four years apart are having completely different experiences with technology. College students scratch their heads at what their high school siblings are doing, and they scratch their heads at their younger siblings. It has sped up generational differences.”

The youngest component of this generation may not even really know what printed newspapers are, and, as Stone puts it, “will believe the Kindle is the same as a book.”