Social Networking and Internet Use Differences Among White, Black, and Hispanic Users

Back in August of 2013 I posted about a PEW study measuring adult use of the internet. Well recently the Wall Street Journal released a study of how Twitter is attempting to better aim it's ads based on the demographics of its users. As it turns out Twitter's user base is more racially diverse than U.S. Internet users as a whole. Blacks, Hispanics and Asian users account for 41% of Twitter's 54 million U.S. users, compared with 34% of the users of rival Facebook and 33% of all U.S. Internet users, according to Pew Research Center's Internet and American Life Project.

The graphic below allows some comparisons between the various prominent social media and their user demographics.

PEW Examines Who Uses Social Networking and Twitter

The Pew Research Center's Internet & American Life Project has been studying online adults’ social networking site use since 2005, and they have seen substantial growth since that first survey. According to their most recent survey, 72% of online adults use social networking sites. Although younger adults continue to be the most likely social media users, one of the more striking stories about the social networking population has been the growth among older internet users in recent years. Those 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.

This report, which was based on data from telephone interviews conducted by Princeton Survey Research Associates International, also studied online adults’ use of Twitter. 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.

To see the complete report, visit this link at PEW.