The Twitter Explosion

We came across an article recently on the American Journalism Review on the use and growth of social media giant Twitter that we thought that you might find interesting. The article talks about its usefulness in regards to journalism as a whole but also goes on to talk about the primary users of the free service. Their findings might surprise you. Here’s an excerpt.

“Still, another attractive aspect of Twitter to journalists is who tweets, and where. Twitter isn’t, primarily, the province of teens and college students. The service has become firmly established among adults, the majority of whom say they use the site while at work. According to Nielsen Online, people age 35-49 were the largest single group of tweeters, making up about 42 percent of the total in February (in fact, people older than 55 exceeded the number of users age 25 to 34). This means that Twitter appeals to an older, more serious crowd than its more popular social networking cousins, Facebook and MySpace. As no less an authority than my teenage daughter says with classic you’re-so-out-of-it-dad disdain, “Nobody uses Twitter in high school. We have Facebook and texting. Twitter’s not relevant.” Case closed.”