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Twitter Users Are Now Younger on Average Than Facebook's
Young Urban ProfessionalThe Pew Internet for the American Life Project is out with new data about Twitter ...
"Some 19% of internet users now say they use Twitter or another service to share updates about themselves, or to see updates about others. This represents a significant increase over previous surveys in December 2008 and April 2009, when 11% of internet users said they use a status-update service."
However, what's also notable is that Twitter is stronger on average with the younger audience - the same one that TV nets and advertisers covet. Overall it's younger than Facebook, which is graying. Still, pound for pound I am sure Facebook has more consumers in the same demo given its girth ...
"Internet users age 18-44 report rapid uptake of Twitter over the last nine months, whereas internet users ages 45 and older report slower adoption rates. For example, 37% of internet users age 18-24 use Twitter or another service, up from 19% in December 2008.
The median age of a Twitter user is 31, which has remained stable over the past year. The median age for MySpace is now 26, down from 27 in May 2008, and the median age for LinkedIn is now 39, down from 40. Facebook, however, is graying a bit: the median age for this social network site is now 33, up from 26 in May 2008."
This also explains why Twitter users like current events and culture. For more, see the PDF from Pew embedded below.
PIP_Twitter_Fall_2009.pdf (451 KB)
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Reader Comments (14)
It doesn't really surprise me. I personally find that Twitter can be more connecting for information because of tools to sort people by group rather than the general feed and clutter on Facebook (a bit of topic I know).
Nice post, Steve. What's interesting to me is not the young, but the 9% growth on 35-44 Gen X'ers and 5-6% growth in Baby Boomers aged 45-64, the age when women are actively seeking health information for their elderly parents for chronic diseases such as Alzheimers, dementia, cancer etc.I wonder if Pew have the stats broken down by gender - women tend to make most health care decisions in the family, hence my interest.
The focus on Twitter in Pew's headlines is misleading - especially with the number of people who are using Facebook for this purpose - it could easily fall into the "another status update service" category, and in reading the questions from the survey, I can see how someone would answer yes even if they are not using Twitter.
How many people did they ask? I don't think that these numbers are quite accurate, coming from a teen.
Daniel I believe the methodology is detailed at the end of the report.
Ironically, NPR ran a story this morning talking about why Facebook as over taken MySpace. The interview included quotes from several high schoolers and when one was asked about Twitter he said, "Twitter is for old people".
The few twitter teens I know only use to follow their favorite celebs. Celebrity endorsements favor twitter, but I think the teen who said Twitter is for old people right. Most of the teens I know don't get twitter.
I would be REALLY interested to see the trend of which age groups came on when. If I remember, it was only a few months ago where the largest group of Twitter signups came from women 45yo+. I am probably off on that, but it would be interesting to see.
Interesting that the younger audience is on the rise. The teens that I have talked with that are using twitter have been mostly interested in tech/web dev.
How does Twitter know the age of all its users? Their criteria doesnt even ask for it?
It's great to see how the various social networks are starting to become more and more defined by their users. I love seeing how the market responds and defines so clearly all of these new technologies as they mature.
i heard that same show on npr and thought of it immediately. so many smart comments on this already! but i agree-- how DOES twitter know the age? and, seems like a stretch to assume that just becuase the most recent group of users might be younger it doesn't necassarily make up the biggest percent and still--the largest number of youth use facebook...they've just been there since the beginning. another reminder for careful consumption of statistics!
additionally--it's really helpful and interesting to see the big uptick in different types of users for each site.
as happened at the beginning of Facebook; older people will come later