A new study of about 2,2000 adults indicates that 15% of “online adults” are active on Twitter and 8% use it on a typical day. America’s daily use of Twitter by adults has doubled since last year at this time and quadrupled since last 2010, the study maintains, in part because of smartphones. The data was compiled through February 2012.
The report, conduced by the Pew Research Center’s Internet American Life Project , suggests that accessing Twitter via cell phones may explain the Twitter traffic uptick: “Twitter usage is highly correlated with the use of mobile technologies, especially smartphones. One in five smartphone owners (20%) are Twitter users, with 13% using the service on a typical day.”
In a prior Pew study, “using” Twitter was determined by asking Twitter users whether they “used Twitter or another service to share updates about yourself or to see updates about others?”
The most avid Twitters users are young adults (ages 18-24), urban and suburban residents, and African Americans according to the findings. The “generation Twitter” 20-something group apparently also accounted for the largest increase of smartphone ownership of any demographic group. Some 26% of the 18-24 cohort use Twitter and 20% use it on a typical day.
Those specific categories aside, men and women have roughly the same Twitter usage rates, the Pew data indicates.
The Twitter social network has an estimated 200 million users and is increasingly a medium for breaking news among other things.
An incredible 80% of all adults are estimated to be on the Internet so there appears to be room for additional Twitter growth.
Has your Twitter use increased in the past year?
