Mining pew 3: Social Media

Lenhart, A., Purcell, K., Smith, A. & Zickuhr, K. (2010).  Social Media & Mobile Internet Use Among Teens and Young Adults.  Pew Research Center's Internet & American Life Project.  Retrieved from:  http://pewinternet.org/Reports/2010/Social-Media-and-Young-Adults.aspx

http://www.pewinternet.org/files/old-media//Files/Reports/2010/PIP_Social_Media_and_Young_Adults_Report_Final_with_toplines.pdf

I was surprised by the findings in regards to social networks.  I thought for sure Twitter was going to be more popular with teens and young adults but according to this data teens and young adults are using MySpace.  I thought MySpace died a long time ago but I guess I was wrong.  

Lenhart, Purcell, Smith, & Zickuhr's report focuses on the use of social media, internet and mobile service by teens and young adults.  This report compiles data obtained by Princeton Survey Research Associates International.   A teen cell phone survey was conducted through a telephone interview which included parents.  A separate telephone interview was conducted to compile the adult internet usage data and includes results from a daily tracking internet usage survey.

They found that young adults (18-29) and teens are blogging less since 2006 and the percentage of older adults blogging has increased.  Young adults and teens are "microblogging" instead (17).  Young adults and teens use different social networking sites than older adults.  I think this may be due to teens wanting privacy and to be considered separate from their parents.  Older adults use Facebook more frequently.  Teens and young adults use MySpace more often.    Interestingly, young adults use social networking sites at the same rate as teens.  Twitter is also not being used as often by younger teens.  I have seen Twitter grow in popularity in our area.  Internet use is about the same for all ages but young adults use wireless more often than older adults while older adults use desktops more often than young adults who report using laptops more frequently.  I see this often with older colleagues, they shy away from the laptops and find desktops easier to use. 

As for cell phone usage, the largest growth of cell phone usage has been the teen group.  Seventy-five percent of American teens own a cell phone(9-10).   Those with higher income and higher education are more likely to own cell phones.  Teen boys and girls use their cells for different purposes. Teen boys are more likely to own gaming devices.  I purchased cell phones for my children when they started middle school so that they could call me if they needed to stay after school or simply to keep track of their whereabouts with ease. 

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