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Twitter Usage Nearly Doubles in Six Months

Submitted by Jason Smith on Mon, 03/23/2009 - 10:37

The PEW Internet & American Life Project announced that as of December 2008, 11% of adults used Twitter or similar service to share updates about themselves and to read updates about others. In May 2008, just 6% of adults reported using this type of service and in November 2008, 9% of adults reported using this type of service.
Twitter was launched in August 2006 and allows people to send short messages known as "tweets" to friends. These messages are less than 140 characters and can be sent from a computer or, more likely, a data-enabled phone such as a Blackberry or iPhone.
Other highlights from the report include:

  • Use of other social networking sites and blogs increase likelihood of use of Twitter
  • The service is most popular with internet using adults under 35 - with nearly 1 in 5 online adults between 18 and 34 using Twitter or similar service
  • Only 1 in 10 online adults over age 35 are using this system
  • Twitter has been used to disseminate information about California wildfires and the January 2009 crash of the US Airways flight #1549

Source: Pew Internet Project Data Memo, February 12, 2009, "Twitter and Status Updating" by Amanda Lenhart and Susannah Fox