Pew: Twitter users young, social and mobile

Who are Twitter users and what do they use the micro-blogging site for? These questions and more are answered in the Pew Internet & American Life Project's most recent survey of online Americans.
by Helen Leggatt
According to Pew's findings, American Twitter users are young, active in social media and blogging circles and highly mobile.
As with most social media, those using Twitter do so to keep in touch with friends, family and news events while following others they have an interest in, for instance a celebrity or a brand.
Pew's survey found the median age of a Twitter user to be 31. In comparison, the median age of a MySpace user is 27, a Facebook user 26 and LinkedIn users are older with a median age of 40. Of those Americans that use Twitter, 19% are between the ages of 18 and 24 and 20% are aged 25 to 34. The numbers drop substantially after age 35, according to Pew, which found 10% of 35- to 44-year-olds tweeting and 5% of 45- to 54-year-olds. The decline is more drastic among older Internet users, with 4% of 55- to 64-year-olds on Twitter and 2% of those 65 and older using Twitter.
Twitter users like to keep tabs on their status and that of others wherever they are. While mobile phone ownership among Twitterers is comparable to the overall online population, they are more likely to text and go online via their mobile devices - 82% have a mobile phone and use it to send text messages, compared to 59% of non-Tweeting mobile phone owners.
Regardless of the platform, Twitter users are also significant consumers of blog and social media content. Twenty-one percent read someone else's blog "yesterday" and 57% of Twitterers have ever read a blog. By comparison, just 9% of those who go online but do not Twitter read someone else's blog yesterday, and 29% have ever read a blog. Pew's researchers also found that 23% of online social network subscribers (MySpace, Facebook, Friendster, etc.) said they had Twittered, compared with only 4% who did so but didn't use other social networks.
Pew's report (.pdf) concludes by saying that "Twitter users engage with news and own technology at the same rates as other internet users, but the ways in which they use the technology - to communicate, gather and share information - reveals their affinity for mobile, untethered and social opportunities for interaction".
Tags: bloggers, blogging, micro-blogging, mobile phone, PDA, Pew, Twitter, Twitterers, wireless
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