Social Media Now Popular Among Older/Adult Internet Users
Have you noticed a change in your “friends” list on social media sites lately? Instead of a vast number of mostly young adults and teens, suddenly there are grandparents and great grandparents joining the group? It is true. The Pew Research Center’s Internet and American Life Project has recently released new statistics which confirm this!
Who is the Pew Research Center? They are a nonpartisan "fact tank" that provides information on the issues, attitudes and trends shaping America and the world.
Ever popular sites such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and others have always drawn from certain segments of society, but Pew’s recent report reveals an increase in “adult” users. They state that a full two-thirds, or 65 percent, of the adult internet users now flock to social networking sites! In fact, surveys now show, for the first time, that half of all adults are using these sites! Pew reports that the pace at which they are heading for the sites is “staggering.” This group was first asked about their use of social networking in 2005 at which time only 5 percent of adults were using them, compared to the present 50 percent doing so, according to report authors Mary Madden and Kathryn Zickuhr.
Pew’s survey of online adults asked about a broad range of daily internet activities and only email and use of search engines showed higher statistics compared to this group’s use of social media. This is clearly a dramatic change over a fairly short period of time. The report shows that 69 percent of women who are online use social media compared to 60 percent of men who are online.
Still think the social media enthusiasm is only for the youth? The adults surveyed were asked to use one word to describe their experience and the results were mostly positive with “good” being the most common response, but also such descriptive words as fun, convenient, interesting, and great! Don’t be surprised if you ask Mom, Dad, Grandma or Grandpa what they’d like for birthday or holiday gifts and they light up and mention techie toys this year!
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