The majority of adults surveyed by Pew Research Center use social media, with adoption by the older age group growing each year. Twitter specifically was most popular with ages 18 to 29 while the 65 and older group saw slower adoption in that area.
The number of adults who use social networks is up to 72 percent in 2013, according to data from Pew Research Center. This is up 5 percent from last year and 64 percent since 2005 when Pew first started studying social adoption.
“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,” Pew said in a report. “Those ages 65 and older have roughly tripled their presence on social networking sites in the last four years—from 13 percent in the spring of 2009 to 43% now.”
However, the demographics of social networkers show similarities across education level, economic background, geographic location and more. The following chart illustrates who, according to Pew research, is using social media.
Of the social networks, when it comes to Twitter, the data shows a larger gap in both usage and demographics:
Of all the ages using Twitter, the majority is aged 18 to 29. Social media usage in this group has more than doubled to 30 percent in 2013 from less than 15 percent in 2010.
While other age groups using Twitter have also seen usage grow by more than half, the 65 and older crowd is slow going at 5 percent in 2013, up just 1 percent since 2010.