Behind the Tweets

We knew who used MySpace. We know who uses Facebook. But, do we know who the average Tweeter is?

Thanks to an exclusive first-time-ever report by the Pew Internet & American Life Project, we now have an idea of where the wonderful world of tweets hatches from.

With 8% of America’s online population signed onto Twitter, surprisingly the Millennial Generation is the top bird in the Twitter nest.  14% of the Twitter population is 18-29 years-old. As age increases, the likeliness of being on Twitter decreases.

When it comes to gender, females have claimed power. But who are these women, anyway? According to the survey, most women have some college education or have graduated college, live in urban areas and have a salary bracket of either $30,000 and under or $50,000-$74,999. Don't let the numbers fool you though, the men who are on Twitter also have many of the same qualities.

Attitudes, race and life style also play a huge part of who tweets. Users are mainly politically savvy, have a higher education and are very interested in current events. The study also revealed that minority races like African Americans and Latinos “are more than twice as likely to use Twitter as are white Internet users” (Pew Internet). Also, if you live in urban areas you are twice more likely to tweet than your rural neighbors.  

Mashable also analyzed Twitter’s top trends of 2010 to see what the population was tweeting about. The results were:

Gulf Oil Spill
FIFA World Cup
Inception
Haiti Earthquake
Vuvuzela
Apple iPad
Google Android
Justin Bieber
Harry Potter & the Deathly Hallows
Pulpo Paul

(Mashable.com)

Of the top ten trends, three were associated with the FIFA World Cup, two were disasters, two were movies, two were top technological innovations and one was a teenage heart-throb.

Overall we have a clear outline of who is tweeting, but that doesn’t mean that change isn’t approaching. With the constant advancements and changes in the social media world, the numbers and demographics may also see a change. Since 2008 Twitter has seen political campaigns conducted on its site, newspapers updating readers on current events, movie stars keeping followers up-to-date and even companies using Twitter to hire.

With no doubt, we can say that our lives are online today. More specifically, the sites we use say a huge part of the person we have become.

To see Pew Internet’s entire survey, visit http://pewinternet.org/Reports/2010/Twitter-Update-2010/Findings/Overview.aspx.