This article is part 2 of a 5 part series. You can also view part 1, part 3, part 4, and part 5.

Rather than ranting on myself about ageism, I decided to go straight to the source. Today, I have joined a few of the elder hate groups listed on Freydblog.

My goals for this assignment?

1. Get some answers from members in the hate groups.
2. See what these groups are really about.
3. Investigate the demographics and people behind these groups

First impressions upon joining

Group: Drive Faster Old People, You're Dieing
Size: 261 members

Although this is the biggest group listed, there are very few activities. Since inception in September of 2006, there have been only 9 posts. It seems that most of the members are from a particular high school in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

Although few, the messages posted are worse than I expected. Here's an example posted on July 23rd 2007, "you'd think that old people know ing their going to die soon would drive faster to do more things in the short life they have left." On another note, one of the members posted, “i noticed that the title was spelled wrong, but i jioned anyways because Nick is awesome and i like this group!” This seems to be just another social circle to them.

Group: I don't wanna be Facebook friends with senior citizens!
Size: 232 members

Again, very few activities. Nine posts in total since when they began in November of 2006. And similarly, most members of the group are from a particular college.

From the group description, “This group is dedicated to those people who don't wanna be Facebook friends with their mom, dad, or even their grandparents, let alone all senior citizens!”

I also noticed that the resentment level in the messages of this group is significantly less. A few of the 9 posts are just members talking about other subject matter. In a couple of messages, people voiced positive sentiments of elderly, “hey...i am friends with enrique guitar [a 98 year old on Facebook] and he is the coolest old guy i have ever met...even though he is stalking me with his minifeed” (this stereotype is very similar to popular media representation of older people. see my previous post)

Interestingly, 2 of the 3 posts against seniors are with regard to driving slow.

My thought so far

Although the existence of these hate groups is horrible in itself, I think the interests are not as rampant as one might think from just looking at the number of members. I will continue with this assignment and report my findings on a regular basis.