Twitter’s Popularity Not a Result of Young Early Adopters

05/15/2009

While one would expect younger users to be more inclined to take advantage of social media outlets such as Twitter, statistics actually reveal that most of its users happen to be 35 years of age or older. In fact, young adults, aged between 18 and 24, only make up about 10.6 percent of the site’s total users in the United States. Also, according to the research conducted in February by Sarah Radwanick, a blogger for comScore, these younger users are less likely to use it as often than the older users.

The fact that middle-aged users are more like to be found on the site, especially so early on in Twitter’s existence, suggests that unlike the other popular social media outlets, the younger age group is not a driving force behind this microblogging site. Radwanick suggests that the early adopter model may need to be reexamined due to the large number of adults who are active on the site.

She also noted in her most recent blog post that the number of Twitter uses worldwide in February has gone up by 700 percent since last year, a full 10 million new users. The number of users in the United States alone has gone up more than 1000 percent since last year and has now reached 4 million users in total. Of these United States users, roughly 10 percent are within the ages of 55 and 64, which is a number quite close to those in the 18 to 25 age group.

This information makes the case that Twitter is simply not the social media choice of younger users. Further making example of this is the fact that middle-aged users also spend more time on the site. The 33 to 44 age group spend roughly 20 minutes each time they visit the site according to data provided by comScore. Interestingly enough, the 18 to 24 age group spends only an average of 5.3 minutes during each visit.

After the age of 44, users tend to spend less time on the site. The 45 to 54 year olds usually spend only 7 minutes on the site per visit, with this number slightly increased in 55 to 64 year olds. This evidence collected by Radwanick and other sources seems to state the case quite competently that it is the 25 to 54 year olds who are the driving force behind this social media phenomenon. Interestingly enough, it’s the 45 to 54 year olds who are most likely to visit the site in general.

Corresponding with this data, other popular social media sites Facebook and MySpace, are also experiencing a surge of older users, statistics are showing. This however is occurring after the sites had already been established by younger viewers. Twitter is a very rare example of it being the older users who embraced a web technology at such an early date. This information, Radwanick concludes, challenges current assumptions about younger users being more open to new technologies than the older generation.