While sitting around with a group of friends the other day, I took a quick, informal poll and asked “Hey, do any of you use Twitter?” These were friends I’d grown up with hacking code together, running BBSes and generally geeking out with. While all of them had accounts, they hadn’t used them since they created them and they couldn’t figure out why they would.
It was a bit of an eye-opener, as is the latest data from Pew Research finds that only 8% of online American adults use Twitter.
According to Pew, 8% of online adults responded affirmatively to the question “Do you use Twitter?”, with 2% doing so in a typical day. By their math, this accounts for 6% of the entire adult population.
See also: Why Teens Don’t And Won’t Tweet
According to the survey overview, Pew took a different approach this time around with its questions. Previously, it had asked “Do you ever use the internet to use Twitter or another service to share updates about yourself or to see updates about others?” and many publications questioned its methodology. This time around, it simply asked “Do you use Twitter?” and it arrived at this 8% figure.
The survey breaks down Twitter usage according to a number of demographics, finding that Twitter users are primarily between the ages of 18 to 29 and are twice as likely to be black or Hispanic and live in a city. Women and college-educated Internet users are also more likely users of the micro-messaging service.
In addition to looking at who uses Twitter, Pew examined how they used Twitter and found that 65% of Twitter users check the site for updates at most once or twice a week. Nearly a quarter of all users check several times a day, while just over 10% check the site once daily.
Does this change how you see Twitter? Are you so thoroughly enveloped in techiedom that you naturally assume people are on Twitter and using it daily? How about the opposite – does 8% seem like a high number to you? And most importantly, how about you – do you use Twitter?
