Pew Internet & American Life Project: Social Media & Mobile Internet Use Among Teens and Young Adults

Link to February 3 report.

Excerpts:

• Since 2006, blogging has dropped among teens and young adults [from 24% to 17%] while simultaneously rising among older adults [from 7% to 11%]. As the tools and technology embedded in social networking sites change, and use of the sites continues to grow, youth may be exchanging ‘macro-blogging’ for microblogging with status updates.

• Both teen and adult use of social networking sites has risen significantly, yet there are shifts and some drops in the proportion of teens using several social networking site features.

• Teens are not using Twitter in large numbers. While teens are bigger users of almost all other online applications, Twitter is an exception.

• Wireless internet use rates are especially high among young adults, and the laptop has replaced the desktop as the computer of choice among those under thirty.

• Cell phone ownership is nearly ubiquitous among teens and young adults, and much of the growth in teen cell phone ownership has been driven by adoption among the youngest teens.

• Internet use is near-ubiquitous among teens and young adults. In the last decade, the young adult internet population has remained the most likely to go online.