Report: Twitter, older adults drive widespread social media use

Washington, D.C. – Seventy-two percent of online adults in the U.S. use social media. Data from the Pew Research Center's Internet & American Life Project shows that Twitter is helping drive this widespread social media use, as the percentage of Internet users who are on Twitter has more than doubled since November 2010, currently standing at 18%.



Internet users ages 18-29 are the most likely to use Twitter — 30% of them now do so. However, older adults are also a key factor in overall social media usage rates. Pew data shows that adults ages 65 and older have roughly tripled their presence on social networking sites in the last four years, from 13% in the spring of 2009 to 43% now.



The results in the Pew report were based on data from telephone interviews conducted by Princeton Survey Research Associates International from April 17 to May 19, 2013, among a sample of 2,252 adults age 18 and older.