When Facebook was born in 2004, the oldest baby boomers were in their late 50s, and older members of the silent generation were reaching their early 80s. If you thought they were going to sit back and let gifs, emojis and status updates pass them by, you were wrong, according to new research.

In a survey of over 350 American adults between the ages of 60 and 86, researchers at Pennsylvania State University found that older people enjoy the same things their younger counterparts do: using Facebook to bond with old friends and develop relationships with like-minded people. They also like to keep tabs on their loved ones.

These motivations sound awfully similar to those that attracted college students, Facebook’s first colonizers, to the platform — save for one key detail. For many surveyed, seeing photos and video of grandchildren were a powerful lure, according to S. Shyam Sundar, a co-director of the Media Effects Research Laboratory at Penn State, who worked on the survey.

“That was primarily the biggest driver,” Mr. Sundar said, “and the ease with which they can maintain what I call social surveillance, and keep an eye on what’s going on with their children and grandchildren.”