New data on Social Media

This week I was reading a research conducted by PewInternet, about Social Media and Young Adults and I found some interesting stats that I would like to share.

According to the study, young people are losing interest in long-form blogging, as their communication habits have become increasingly brief, and mobile.

Since 2006 the use of blogs is decreasing among teens and young adults. On that year, the percentage of adolescents who maintained a blog was 28% and in 2009 it was only 14%. Additionally, blog commenting has also dropped among teens: 52% of teens’ network users said that they comment in their friends’ blogs, down from the 76% who did so in 2006. 

On the other hand, adults aged 30 years or more have shown growing interest in blogs. In 2007, 7% said that they maintained a blog and that number rose to 11% in 2009.

Moreover, both teen and adult use of social networking sites has risen significantly.73% of American adolescents reported to use multiple social networks websites – increasing from 55% in 2006 and 65% in 2008. Among adults, 47% use social networking sites, up from 37% in November 2008.

The study shows, however, that there is a difference in site preference and usage among different age groups. Young people are more likely to maintain a profile on MySpace (66% of young profile owners do so, compared with just 36% of those 30 and older) but less likely to have a profile on the LinkedIn (7% vs. 19%). In contrast, adult profile owners under 30 and those 30 and older are equally likely to maintain a profile on Facebook (71% of young profile owners do so, compared with 75% of older profile owners).

Another interesting finding is the low usage of Twitter among teens. Only 8% of social network users with ages between 12 and 17 utilize the microblog.  Among adults, the age group that most uses Twitter is between 18 and 24 years (37%), followed by those who are between 25 and 29 years (25%).