Pew Internet

UPDATED: Social networking site use by age group, over time. http://pewrsr.ch/H10jnl

As of August 2012, 69% of online adults use social networking sites.

Want to gobble up more fast social networking facts? Here’s a cheat-sheet. http://pewrsr.ch/H10jnl

Social networking use by age group, over time - 

Do We Really Behave Badly on Social Media?

Via Rypple

We recently studied the tone of life on social networking sites and found that 85% of social-network-using adults say their experience on the sites is that people are mostly kind. That compares with 69% of social-network-using teens who say their experience is that peers are mostly kind to each other in social network spaces.

We also found:

• 68% of SNS users (adults) said they had an experience that made them feel good about themselves.
• 61% had experiences that made them feel closer to another person. (Many said they had both experiences.)
• 39% of SNS-using adults say they frequently see acts of generosity by other SNS users and another 36% say they sometimes see others behaving generously and helpfully. By comparison, 18% of SNS-using adults say they see helpful behavior “only once in a while” and 5% say they never see generosity exhibited by others on social networking sites.

And

• 15% of adult SNS users said they had an experience on the site that ended their friendship with someone.
• 12% of adult SNS users had an experience that resulted in a face-to-face argument or confrontation with someone.
• 11% of adult SNS users had an experience on the site that caused a problem with their family.
• 3% of SNS-using adults said they had gotten into a physical fight with someone based on an experience they had on the site. 
• 3% of adult SNS users said their use of the site had gotten them in trouble at work because of something that happened on the site.

For more on the social networking climate of adults and teens, see http://pewrsr.ch/zRQVuI and http://pewrsr.ch/rUmUXH

Chart of the week: Twitter adoption by age, 2010-2012

In addition to increasing on an overall basis, the proportion of young internet users who use Twitter on a typical day also doubled over the last year. Fully one in five internet users ages 18-24 (20%) now use Twitter on a typical day, up from 9% in May 2011.

Read more …

Big infographic for your Monday evening via Mashable - Who uses today’s biggest social networking sites?

We found that as of February 2012, 66% of online adults use social networking sites.

Check out more demographics/fast facts on social networking

Why do Americans use social media?

pewresearch:

As is often the case, pop culture icons were a hot topic on Twitter last week. The No. 1 subject was the Irish-British band One Direction. It has already been one of the top five subjects on Twitter six times in 2012.

The rampant spread of the viral Kony 2012 video: New Pew Research Center analysis

In case you missed it yesterday, a new Pew Research Center report tracks how the “Kony 2012” video and information about it reached so many Americans in a relatively short period of time, and the critical role social media played, especially for adults under age 30.

Fast facts:

• 27% of young adults first heard about it through social media such as Facebook or Twitter and another 8% learned about it via other internet sources
• The internet was more than three times more important as a news-learning platform for young adults than traditional media such as television, newspapers, and radio
• For those ages 30-49, the mix of news sources was about even: 22% first learned of the “Kony 2012” video from internet sources – 15% via social media – and 21% learned from traditional media sources
• 66% of the Twitter conversation from March 5-12 supported the anti-Kony campaign; 17% was skeptical or negative about it; and 16% was neutral (mostly consisting of people asking questions about what was going on)