8 percent of Americans now use Twitter

According to a new study from the Pew Internet & American Life Project, 8 percent of American adults currently use Twitter, with only 2 percent using it on a daily basis.

The company surveyed 2550 Americans, 74% of which use the Internet.

Although the overall number was low, Pew found that Twitter was popular among younger adults, urban city dwellers and minorities.

Women were also more likely to use Twitter.

Overall, 10 percent of Twitter users were women, compared to 7 percent for men, with the majority being in the 18-29 age group.

From a racial standpoint, Hispanics were most likely to use the micro blogging service followed closely by the black population and finally the white population.

24 percent of Twitter users check the site for updates multiple times a day, while 12 percent check it just once. A full 21 percent never check their accounts.

For those that actually post, 72 percent post about their personal lives, 62 percent write about work and 55 percent post news. 54 percent "post humorous or observational tweets" and 53 percent re-tweet other posts.

52 percent send private messages, 40 share pics, 28 percent share videos and 24 percent tweet their geo-location.

Written by: Andre Yoskowitz @ 9 Dec 2010 14:01

ROMaster2

I don't despise Twitter nearly as much as Facebook since it does have legitimate use, but it's still social cancer.

9.12.2010 18:10 #1

attar

8 percent of Americans now use Twitter - about the same percentage as wash their hands after using the washroom.

9.12.2010 18:19 #2

Azuran

Quote:Overall, 10 percent of Twitter users were women, compared to 7 percent for men I'm sure I'm missing something, but what about the other 83%? Is there some other gender I don't know about?

9.12.2010 18:54 #3

shortybob

Originally posted by Azuran: Quote:Overall, 10 percent of Twitter users were women, compared to 7 percent for men I'm sure I'm missing something, but what about the other 83%? Is there some other gender I don't know about?
Yea, it's the hispanics, blacks, and white people that they mentioned

9.12.2010 19:05 #4

Azuran

Originally posted by shortybob: Originally posted by Azuran: Quote:Overall, 10 percent of Twitter users were women, compared to 7 percent for men I'm sure I'm missing something, but what about the other 83%? Is there some other gender I don't know about?
Yea, it's the hispanics, blacks, and white people that they mentioned
So you can be white, black, or hispanic while not being male or female?

9.12.2010 19:07 #5

hikaricor

Originally posted by Azuran: Originally posted by shortybob: Originally posted by Azuran: Quote:Overall, 10 percent of Twitter users were women, compared to 7 percent for men I'm sure I'm missing something, but what about the other 83%? Is there some other gender I don't know about?
Yea, it's the hispanics, blacks, and white people that they mentioned
So you can be white, black, or hispanic while not being male or female? I can reproduce asexually.

9.12.2010 19:21 #6

bobiroc

Originally posted by ROMaster2: I don't despise Twitter nearly as much as Facebook since it does have legitimate use, but it's still social cancer. Originally posted by ROMaster2: I don't despise Twitter nearly as much as Facebook since it does have legitimate use, but it's still social cancer. How do you figure. I mean I despise some parts of facebook too but do find it nice to keep in contact with long distance family and see pictures and events of their life I would otherwise miss. I avoid the crap like games and becoming a fan/liking every stupid page out there. Twitter is just a bunch of short status updates or quick blurbs. It is like an RSS feed on someone's personal life. The same stuff happens on Facebook too with the people that feel the need to update their status every hour on the hour I guess but there is a lot more you can do on Facebook. I cannot tell you how many friends that moved away or I lost contact with that I was able to reconnect with because of Facebook. Then I have my family that is all over the US and even some in Europe that I can keep up to date with. I guess the trick is to avoid all the crap on FB and use it for the social networking aspect and you will be OK.

AMD Phenom II 965 @ 3.6Ghz, 8GB DDR3, ATI Radeon 5770HD, 300GB 10,000RPM Raptor, 2TB Additional HDD, Windows 7 Ultimate.

9.12.2010 22:08 #7

Mr-Movies

Originally posted by bobiroc: Originally posted by ROMaster2: I don't despise Twitter nearly as much as Facebook since it does have legitimate use, but it's still social cancer. Originally posted by ROMaster2: I don't despise Twitter nearly as much as Facebook since it does have legitimate use, but it's still social cancer. How do you figure. I mean I despise some parts of facebook too but do find it nice to keep in contact with long distance family and see pictures and events of their life I would otherwise miss. I avoid the crap like games and becoming a fan/liking every stupid page out there. Twitter is just a bunch of short status updates or quick blurbs. It is like an RSS feed on someone's personal life. The same stuff happens on Facebook too with the people that feel the need to update their status every hour on the hour I guess but there is a lot more you can do on Facebook. I cannot tell you how many friends that moved away or I lost contact with that I was able to reconnect with because of Facebook. Then I have my family that is all over the US and even some in Europe that I can keep up to date with. I guess the trick is to avoid all the crap on FB and use it for the social networking aspect and you will be OK. You don't need Facebook or Twitter for that, email and DL sites work much better, safer, and much more private. It's really dumb to put your personal life out there for everyone to see, really dumb!

10.12.2010 15:56 #8

bobiroc

Originally posted by Mr-Movies: Originally posted by bobiroc: Originally posted by ROMaster2: I don't despise Twitter nearly as much as Facebook since it does have legitimate use, but it's still social cancer. Originally posted by ROMaster2: I don't despise Twitter nearly as much as Facebook since it does have legitimate use, but it's still social cancer. How do you figure. I mean I despise some parts of facebook too but do find it nice to keep in contact with long distance family and see pictures and events of their life I would otherwise miss. I avoid the crap like games and becoming a fan/liking every stupid page out there. Twitter is just a bunch of short status updates or quick blurbs. It is like an RSS feed on someone's personal life. The same stuff happens on Facebook too with the people that feel the need to update their status every hour on the hour I guess but there is a lot more you can do on Facebook. I cannot tell you how many friends that moved away or I lost contact with that I was able to reconnect with because of Facebook. Then I have my family that is all over the US and even some in Europe that I can keep up to date with. I guess the trick is to avoid all the crap on FB and use it for the social networking aspect and you will be OK. You don't need Facebook or Twitter for that, email and DL sites work much better, safer, and much more private. It's really dumb to put your personal life out there for everyone to see, really dumb! You cannot search and find people using email and download site as easy and they are hardly better or the same thing. I am not saying FB is perfectly safe and nothing is but there things you can do to keep your privacy and keep yourself safe. Most people just do not bother to read the FAQs on that though.

AMD Phenom II 965 @ 3.6Ghz, 8GB DDR3, ATI Radeon 5770HD, 300GB 10,000RPM Raptor, 2TB Additional HDD, Windows 7 Ultimate.

10.12.2010 16:45 #9

Mr-Movies

Yes you can easily search for posted email accounts, but if they are private email accounts then of course you can't which is the point. Again there is really no need for either social site.

10.12.2010 17:18 #10

Mr-Movies

Originally posted by chris1980: Quote:The company surveyed 2550 Americans, 74 of which use the Internet.

What was the point of surveying the 2476 Americans that don't use the internet? They would have to survey everyone (adults) for the percentages they were targeting besides it is a more thorough approach. They were looking at percentage per population. They can though provide the percentages for surfers only from this target group as well if they wanted too.

I thought the numbers would be higher as I know so many people that use or have used social networking and I'm sure if they presented amount of surfers the percentages would be much higher. They could have added Linkedin as well which would elevate their results.

15.12.2010 01:40 #11

AfterDawn: News