My grandparents are just now getting accustomed to email. And my parents are sometimes iffy about text messaging. But Ivy Bean is 104 years old, and is an avid user of Twitter. She already has over 10,000 followers.

As Twitter begins to take over many of the functions used for emailing, instant messaging and blogging, it’s certain that this now mainstream tool will have a quickly growing user base from the more mature demographic. So is its device-bridging capabilities the perfect medium for gaining on the older generation?

Twitter is a pretty simple tool to use, especially when you’re using Twitter for basic communication or keeping in touch with a few key people, such as family members. So perhaps Twitter is the ideal medium for such communication, despite the slower adoption of certain technology from the mature demographic. But the fastest growing demographic on Facebook is from this particular demographic. So why couldn’t it happen on Twitter as well?

Now, Ivy Bean was already pretty tech savvy when she joined Twitter. Having already created a Facebook account, Ivy was adept at social networking and readily uses it to keep in touch with family and friends. But perhaps Twitter could become an even more welcoming introduction to social media for the older demographic.

The concept of Twitter, however, isn’t always easily grasped, especially by those (of any age) that haven’t tried it out yet. Many often say that the true value of Twitter comes not from basic communication but in marketing and online brand-building. I think, to a certain extent, this is an overstatement–one that Ivy Bean is beginning to prove wrong.

And Twitter is actually layering in even more features to enhance the communication capabilities of Twitter, making it a more inherently useful tool. As more features are added onto Twitter, the more useful it could become to a broader set of users. I think geo-data could be important for Twitter in this regard. Microsoft Vine is currently testing an update system with integrated geo-data features to be used for alerts within a preexisting community.

But I think Microsoft’s introduction of such technology gives geo-data a real chance to become widely accepted as a controllable factor in social media and intercommunication practices. Twitter may be able to take advantage of the growing acceptance of geo-data and integrate it into its own service in order to generate revenue and appeal to even more mainstream (and older) users.

Though a great deal of Twitter’s value comes in the form of marketing potential for personal or business brands, it’s also important to remember the core principle of Twitter is to merely communicate with others. And that’s something we all do at any age.