DISQUS

William · 4 months ago

I find the breakdown of the age group in the study is not in favor of the teens group. Based on the report the first group is from 2-24 yo. Really the teens group would be from 12-24, there is a much smaller group then the second group which spans across 25-54. This second group can easily be broken into 3 groups 25-34, 35-44, 44-54 yo. Assuming each of these groups form a 21% of the total, it really evens out the difference as shown in the first chart.

Diane · 4 months ago

I noticed this too. This is a piss-poor use of statistics. Of *course* you are going to have larger numbers when the age range is wider for one group than another.

Also, Nielsen only used data on people who go to the Twitter.com site, not people who visit using cell phones or desktop widgets.

Overall I'd say this study tells us absolutely nothing.

Innah · 4 months ago

What shocks me is that there are people over 55 who tweet...

taraaaa · 4 months ago

hahahah, i agree
i can't think of anyexample

kc · 4 months ago

Larry King.

gianna113 · 4 months ago

LOL WHEN I SAW THAT ON THE CHART I WAS LIKE "WUHHHHHHH?"

tomguarriello · 3 months ago

Here's one.

realjournalist · 4 months ago

Yes, because if you're over 55 you don't know how to program your VCR, nevermind Tweet, right? And you should probably just die and get it over with....

Idiot.

Trudy · 4 months ago

I find people over 55 often very computer savvy. Some are retired and have time to learn a new skill. I find that many of the people who do not know what they are doing with technology are younger gen Xers who do not work in a technology related field. I don't know how many times I had to explain something as simple as having multiple accounts accessible through Apple Mail. If that is complicated, I don't know how I would ever explain Twitter.

Ian Douthwaite · 4 months ago

Interesting. I think we need to look at trends within age groups, not treat a snapshot as the trend. Our research department quickly asked 400 of our panel of 13-18 year olds across the UK in July 2009 about their awareness and usage of Twitter. It's actually more widespread than the Nielsen research reveals.

81% of the sample (13-18s) knew about Twitter and what it was, 14% had heard of it but weren’t overly clued in, however 3% had no clue whatsoever about Twitter.

48% of the 13-18 year olds already had a Twitter account, with the percentage growing as they get older. The 13-14 age bracket had just 39% with an account, however the 17-18 age bracket registered 54% of them with an account.

How Do Teens Use Twitter?
There’s no set standard for the way teens with an account use Twitter. 34% last posted a tweet more than a fortnight ago, whilst 27% last posted today and 12% yesterday. 15% of those who signed up however have NEVER Tweeted.

25% of respondents Tweet more than 20 times a month, and again usage is higher in the older age bracket with 17% of 13-14’s Tweeting more than 20 times a month, whilst 32% of 17-18 year olds tweet that often.

Who they Follow?
Teenagers follow their friends (80%) most, followed by Celebrities (76%), Funny people (23%), Strangers into the same thing as me (17%), Complete strangers (10%), Random people (9%) and no-one (6%).

The idea of using Twitter to network and have conversations is much more prevalent amongst the older age groupings. Those who follow ‘Strangers into the same thing as me’ number just 4% of 13-14 year olds, whilst 24% of 17-18 year olds follow this grouping.

So privacy is important in the younger demographic, but as they lose their shyness, they switch on to Twitter. We're becoming more aware that the internet is increasing this trend to lose shyness earlier - so be prepared for more Teenage Tweets!

CatEcumen · 4 months ago

The fact that mobile apps aren't being counted seems to be the answer to this mystery. I strongly suspect that most teens who tweet do so from their cell phones, not from their computers.

Aaron Street · 4 months ago

I'm glad to hear it.

I think it's great that there's finally proof that not all technology trends are driven by children. Finally there is a meaningful internet trend being driven mainly by professionals.

Megan Flinn · 4 months ago

i think it has a lot to do with WHY people join twitter. I love it because it connects all areas of my life into one location - education, newsmedia, religion, comedians and of course, friends! Teenagers are developmentally at a place where their core interest is each other and socialization. While there are exceptions to every case, most teens find sites like facebook and myspace sufficient to communicate with their friends. Other sources of information are just not as enticing to them yet :) i <3 twitter

Delilah · 4 months ago

Tweeting, is not for the young.

They don't care about what your doing every second of everyday. They have things to do like get drunk, get high, and party.

Thats why they don't tweet.

Because, all the tweeting is mostly done over myspace, a more proficient method of saying what your doing. Without just looking at someone's page. I think they don't do it because, they feel like stalkers.

Bailey · 4 months ago

I'm a teen, and I'm kind of offended by that portrayal of teens. Granted I'm turning 20 in about a week, but still -never have I used my time to get drunk, high or go to parties, nor have many of my friends. Don't tar all teens with the same brush; that's an unfair assessment. I don't assume that all people over the age of 20 tweet because they are stalkers and have no lives, so why assume that all teens are the same types of people?

Kirstenn · 4 months ago

I am a teenager and I am really offended by your opinion of us. I'm sixteen years old and I don't drink or party because I have better things to do with my time, and tweeting fits well into my daily schedule as a teen, because all it takes is a quick second to send out from my phone, rather than having to go to a computer, log-on to myspace or facebook and change my status. Not that facebook or myspace are a waste of time overall, but when you just want to fire off a quick comment, Twitter is way easier.

I think you need to get over your misplaced archetypes of teens, because I think you'll find that since you were a teen (can you remember that far?) People are a lot more accepting of the teens who choose not to waste their lives and brain cells partying so early. So if you'll kindly stop being so judgmental, maybe you an realize that you are wrong.

Oh. And also, just because LESS teens tweet, that doesn't mean no teens tweet at all. This study lumps a HUGE age group together to make a point. I'd like to see a real study.

David Warwick · 4 months ago

Why does the graph start with 2 to 24 (how many 2 year old kids Twitter). If every year from 17 to 24 equated to 2 percent, it would be similar to the large 25 to 54 bracket if all 29 years equated to 2 percent per year. The chart is rubbish. Why not 11 to 20, 21 to 30, 31 to 40. Let me guess, then there would be no story. Nielsen - lift your game!

Helen · 4 months ago

What's with the age banding? 2-24, so that's 23 years covered, but I don't think we expect many Twitterers under 10 anyway, so that's 50% of them out of the equation already. The biggest group is the 25-54 group, which is a 30 year slice, all of whom are potential users. What kind of statistical analysis is this? I think it probably is true that teens aren't the biggest tweeters, but why can't the results be presented in say 10 year bands to make the result clear.

James Gifford · 4 months ago

"but I don't think we expect many Twitterers under 10 anyway,". It is a violation of the Terms of service. http://twitter.com/tos because you have to be 13

aethre · 4 months ago

Who doesn't always lie and say that they're over 13 anyway? I did back then and I consistently lied about my age until I hit eighteen.

capobecchino · 4 months ago

Because Twitter is more geek ;)

Katie · 4 months ago

If teens don't tweet than explain why Miley has more than 1 million followers and why Her and The Jonas Brothers are always Trending Topics?

wendywhy · 4 months ago

This is so funny because I have two teens who think twitter is LAME! But they want me to follow people that they like (Miley, Taylor Swift, @Davedays, @Iamchrisc, etc). Then I'm supposed to tell them what their favorite celebs are doing.
This is a fun way to mess with my kids by giving them misinformation! I love it!

jerry · 4 months ago

it's all the closet miley & jb fans in the 40-50 year old demographic ---

Oscar Godson · 4 months ago

There are some sick 40-50 year olds out there...

Lori M · 4 months ago

It could be the mom's of those kids talking about their child's obsession with Miley or the brothers that cause the trending.

Trudy · 4 months ago

It's older people. Look at their avatars (assuming they use real photos). Many of those people look clear over 25, and are....um....fans of these people.

gords · 3 months ago

Becouse their fan bases are made up of 55+ retirement community grey heads.. ?

Knoyce · 4 months ago

This is true. Teens and early adults do not really use Twitter. Many of these people are looking for somewhere to go now with Facebook getting old as well.

Knoyce just launched and it has everything you need. Knoyce even has mobile version for the iPhone and iPod @ http://www.knoyce.com/m/ - Go to http://www.knoyce.com to join whats "better than just nice"

wewillchange · 4 months ago

"but only 16% of Twitter users lie in that age range"

Twitter.com GROWTH by age group.
GROWTH.
This statistic IS NOT reflecting the age of twitter users, it is reflecting the growth in certain age groups. I imagine all other social networking sites would be similar. Facebook is receiving an influx of middle aged users as well.

OriginalRockers · 4 months ago

The exact opposite in fact....the data reflects a static snapshot of Twitter's user base and includes no information about the demographics that are growing.

xenon · 4 months ago

yeah, hence the title Twitter.com Website GROWTH by Age Group

bamf_mom · 4 months ago

OMG, I'm middle aged! I'm my parents! :-)

Stephen · 3 months ago

The graph is poorly titled; however, if you look at the axes, it is showing "snapshots" of the twitter population at one-month time intervals. In June 2009, indeed only 16% of the user base was aged 2 - 24 years of age. The graph is showing the "growth" of the twitter user base in that it also shows the trend of an increasing number users over the six-month period; however, that is not the aspect of this graph that is being focused on in the article.

Ona Vinyamata · 4 months ago

My thoughts are teens may not like twittering because that is like publicizing what their parents want to know: what the hell are they doing. Facebook gives them more intimacy and control of their privacy.

nickz · 4 months ago

Ona - you're the first person in this string, IMHO, to get this right. Facebook is a broadcast utility vis-a-vis status updates, but it allows for distro control; not to mention that between PDA apps and teens having more time in reach of a computer than older Twitter users, there isn't much necessity for Twitter. That said, Twitter feeds a trend that the firm I work for TRU, has identified with regards to Teens: young people are phenomenal info aggregators and, in some cases, presenters of aggregated thinking. They find things for which they have a passion and become citizen experts. That's when Twitter becomes compelling. As teens mature and find a desire to voice their opinions, they'll move in that direction.

Steph · 4 months ago

Agreed. I'm a younger user who joined to promote feminism and uses it as a source of news om issues I care about like feminism, lgbtq rights, #iranelection, etc. Actually, my friend that uses twitter is probably one of the most informed people I know about Iran, but most people I know don't have a strong drive to support causes yet.

Katie · 4 months ago

If teens don't tweet than explain why Miley has more than 1 million followers and why Her and The Jonas Brothers are always Trending Topics?

jewelgem12 · 4 months ago

I am actually a teen, and I follow neither Miley Cyrus or the Jonas Brothers. Secondly, I have never seen either of them as a Trending Topic. There simply aren't enough little preteens that go on the computer enough to tweet about disney stars. Look at the facts, not the assumptions.

aethre · 4 months ago

You're not following the trending topics, then. A few weeks ago, Jonas Brothers fans spammed the trending topics with stuff about their baseball team, well wishes about how one of them got dumped (boo hoo) and begging them to come to their country.

Richard Cunningham · 4 months ago

Maybe they signed up and followed them, but never actually used the service in the end

oliviahithersay · 4 months ago

HAHA im afraid they are only loved by the high school musical generation - ie: 8-12 year olds... too young for twitter.

Jessica Liu · 4 months ago

I think that it's more about the initial appeal of Twitter when it's introduced to teens. "What? just a status update?"

I'm 22 and love twitter for its immediacy of news sharing, but my 18yr old little sister never got around to using Twitter because she mentions "there's no point to it" "who are my friends? i don't see any pictures" and she prefers Facebook.

My thoughts are teenagers find spaces like Facebook and MySpace more interesting because it's filled with imagery, ways to express themselves and connect with others beyond "just a status update".

Whereas Twitter can appeal to the older demographic because it is fast, simple, and perfect for on-the-go mobile users. And won't take too much time, unless you become extremely addicted to trending news :)

Luke, Reach Students · 4 months ago

There seems to be an obsession with young people and Twitter!

Twitter is not good for closed-group socialising between known friends, which is what many young people like.

It *is* good for self-promotion, resource sharing and stranger socialising - which all lend themselves to business. Young people who have something to gain from this - career-minded students, young entrepreneurs, infofreaks - use it, but regular chew-the-cud young people can't see the point.

I find Twitter a very businessy environment. What's going on with this obsession? Are all these business people sat in there thinking "Hey, I'm doing something cool right? That's what the news tells me:Twitter is cool. So where are all the young people?".

They don't want to hang out with you.

Alex Griffiths · 4 months ago

Interesting point Luke but I think is down to context. Young people haven't found a useful context for the tool yet. I think that may change in the future as more Twitter based products get released.

lakew00d · 4 months ago

This is exactly right. My teens couldn't see the point in Twitter until they saw their favorite bands and Disney stars on it. Now they're mildly interested in seeing what they're saying but haven't started tweeting themselves. Also there's a huge contingent of Twitter users who are tweeting from expensive Blackberries and iPhones, which are not in every teen's budget.

Josh · 4 months ago

I'm 16 and I tweet almost obsessively. I also know about 4 or 5 others who tweet almost as much as I do who are my age. Not all teens tweet, but some of us do.

alexxx · 4 months ago

agreed. im only 14, and most my friends are 15-17 and we all tweet like 20-50 times a day, its obsessive.

hawkrider1 · 4 months ago

I'm also 14, I don't tweet obsessively, but I tweet. I also check my twitter at least 6 times a day.

sky · 3 months ago

see that guy was exactally right, the little teens are like toddlers that watch the same dvd 20 to 50times a day. explains the teen hottopics perfectly

Zachary Collins · 4 months ago

Same here. I am 14 and love to tweet.

CheyMeister · 4 months ago

seconded

LaraRibas · 3 months ago

24 here and love twitter. Use it on a daily basis for professional and personal purposes. :)

Michael · 4 months ago

Agreed, 17 here and use it constantly, as a source of news and information, and as I would any other social network.

oliviahithersay · 4 months ago

yeah, im 16 and tweet a lot. but i only have a few friends who are like me, most of my friends and teens i know are on facebook instead.... im on both :)

michaela paige · 4 months ago

oliviahithersay - same here.

Patrick · 4 months ago

Yeah, I'm 16 and probably 75% of my friends Tweet, even the "non nerdy" ones

Wimsito · 4 months ago

I'm 15. I tweet a few times a day. Only know one other teen who tweets. Maybe it's because Twitter isn't integrated enough in other social networks (eg. facebook, netlog) and in combination with it being quite different is less interesting for teens?

Just my idea..

Julio Fragoso · 4 months ago

This stats are good because keeps mature subjects. sometimes at least... =D

what? · 4 months ago

This comment are good because mature subjects are keeps teens.

Nick · 4 months ago

2,500,000 (roughly) is a lot of people not doing something

Johny Ho · 4 months ago

It's funny having Pete posting this article. As he's under 25 himself, right?

mashable · 4 months ago

Yeah, 23. But we already knew I'm weird :)

viicOop · 4 months ago

lmaOo

PetrBuben · 4 months ago

To be a genius, a leader on the cutting edge, is not weird. ...not at least by the most accounts .. :] ....
as for Twitter, it will need to evolve. .. add better conversations, pics post, get rid of silly 140 chars limit (show 140 as header, and clickable whole full feature blog post underneath) .... if Twitter wont evolve, people will discover Friendfeed ......

Daniel Defillo · 3 months ago

LOL! Curiously Facebook bought Friendfeed and is beta testing (invite only) Facebook Lite!

tomguarriello · 3 months ago

I'm 62. Guess that makes us both curvebusters!

saifu · 4 months ago

yes am 23....

Diana · 4 months ago

I'm 22 and i'm addicted to twitter :) However none of my friends use it because they don't see the point of saying what's on their minds all the time. Nowadays most teens are empty of ideias.They live to dress well,to date,to have fun.For me twittering is like a terapy. I can say whatever i want to say, i can follow whomever i want to follow and, most of all, i'm in control. I only say what i want, when i want. We, humans, can barely control our lives at times so being in control is cool for a change. I think that's why teens don't use it. They don't have anything to say or they don't feel the need to say what they think.

Terrell Merritt · 4 months ago

Not to sound rude in the slightest, But I beg to differ. I am a teen myself. And I mean 13-15 year old teen [The specific age isn't public business]. And according to the mass majority of people I know, I have many ideas. I don't always tweet about them, But I haven't had Twitter that long. To be honest, If I would put my mind to it, I could tweet more "maturely" (as others here call it) then most people in the age group higher than me. But like I said, I choose not to. Anyways, You are still right in the fact that MOST teens don't have anything to say. Just needed to be assured that you and these other people know that there are SOME teens with bright minds. :)

mike · 4 months ago

Twitter is for narcissistic geeks/losers who think people are actually interested in their mundane activities and lives. Nobody really gives a crap how you feel right this instant or that you just had a bagel.

Brian Collette · 4 months ago

Hostile much? Facebook serves the same purposes and people (teens, like yourself I'm guessing) still use it. Twitter is just 1/10th the functionality.

Cell · 4 months ago

True... but, don't feed the trolls! LOL

Jess · 4 months ago

I kinda take offense to that. I'm seventeen and I tweet whatever's on my mind on a daily basis. Teens have a lot to say, older people just don't bother to take the time and listen to us. Just because some of us don't have anything to say, that doesn't mean that all of us are empty headed. Also, I mostly follow teens. My friends, Miley, Selena, Demi, Mitchell, Mason. They're all teens and they all tweet multiple times a day. These stats are bullshark.

CheyMeister · 4 months ago

Personally, I tweet whatever comes to my mind that i want to get out. A lot of my internet friends follow me, but my real friends hardly go on. It's the only site where i can put something out to vent, and not have any consequences of someone i care about reading it. This website has been a really useful tool to me. I really wish people didn't generalize people with ages because it's absolutely ridiculous. I don't see why even if this demographic were true..why would it matter?

Back to what you said: teens have thoughts and emotions just as any other aged person does. If they don't feel the need to express that, then maybe they should. I know firsthandedly that it's helped me a great lot. 621 Tweets ago i was wishing for something like this.

anon · 4 months ago

teen here. I'd tweet whats on my mind, and if i did id have about 20 tweets a minute

the reason i don't tweet, because twitter is the lamest most degrading thing on the entire Internet

honestly its worst then myspace and facebook.

Aadil Pitafi · 4 months ago

I'm 15 and I Tweet!

Yasmin · 4 months ago

I'm 17 and hardly any of my friends use twitter. I mean, there's a few, but I've definatily noticed it's mostly older people! But lol @ the group being '2 - 24'.. i'd LOVE to see a 2 year old tweeting!
Anyway.. I think it's just because we're more into things like MySpace and FaceBook. They have more to do, so most teens probably get bored by twitter because they'll see it simply as updating their status, which they can do on other social networking sites, as well as loads of other things - such as photo albums and quizzes/games and commenting on eachothers "walls

James Gifford · 4 months ago

it is really a violation of the Terms of Service. http://twitter.com/tos/ clearly states that you
must "You must be 13 years or older to use this site." Full disclosure: I am 13 years old I and I tweet a lot

Neil · 4 months ago

@ Ona Vinyamata Good point. Also compare a twitter page to a bebo page.

roknil · 4 months ago

Well obviously people under 24 and over 55 is not seated almost all day in front a pc or mac, and they didn't bought yet or didn't understood how to use a 3g cellphone.
Most of the media generation is used to follow not only tweets but tv shows and the news reports via twitter.
In my country, Chile, lots of tv shows on public broadcasting are interacting with the audience via twitter, the same with lots of newspapers, some journalists tweet while reporting live on tv news, we have lots of other uses for twitter like broadcast live via twitcam to other twitter followers, there is a generation who is growing with twitter and possibly if you search again in 3 or 5 years more, twitter will be growing in users amount. The aplication is too young for this kind of messures.

Nosajmaer · 4 months ago

Teens just are not sitting in front of a computer all day nor do most of them have a mobile device that would enhance their Twitter experience. Twitter to a teen is an on the spot update of whatever they thinking or doing. If they can't do it immediately the moment is lost.

I also agree that they don't see this as private as some of the other social networking sites AND that they are just aren't aware that some of their favorite brands/celebs are tweeting.

Don't forget, this is still just a baby and companies are just now learning how to take advantage of this. Soon you will see billboards driving down i90 (apple now owns that entire interstate) telling you to follow @abercrombie for tips to be the sexiest sophmore at Bayside.

Michael Osterman · 4 months ago

We recently conducted a survey of Twitter users and found the mean age of Twitterers in our survey to be 41.1 years (median was 40.0).

SherylLoch · 4 months ago

Great!
Wait until I tell my 15 year old daughter that she & her friends need to get off the Tweeting. I knew they were not needed there clogging up the stream. LOL!

I guess having a child that age, I know several kids that tweet. Also most of the kids I know do not seem to be trying to hide from parental eyes. If they want to hide stuff they use an IM or secret email. Oops, bet I wasn't suppose to know that.

thrillerauthor · 4 months ago

Teens are more into themselves than Twitter allows. They would rather SMS their friend about their world than share with the rest of their world. Their private life is changing and sometimes a tumultuous storm. Why spend 140 characters spewing to the world when they could SMS their friend.

Wan-Qi Kim, Investor · 4 months ago

I have 20k youtube subscribers. 80% are in school. Of them 5 are on twitter. Five.

Tatiana · 4 months ago

i'm confused on what the ran the study on, if it wasn't from the desktop or mobile then what is it from? like phone apps?

Cathie Scally · 4 months ago

twitter is too boring for teens and too much hard work looking up websites lol

Tatiana · 4 months ago

btw I'm 20 and I freaking looooove twitter

Grace · 4 months ago

I'm 22 and I'm a Twitter-holic.

Not many of my peers tweet but enough to have personal jokes session on twitter.

Maybe the reason why teens are not into Twitter because it's so open. Forgive me if I'm being stereotypical about teens but they do tend to be cliquish. Facebook allows them to control their cliques.

It's too open on Twitter.

Tala · 4 months ago

Twitter is not sociable, but has become more of an information source/sharing/searching. The young want a place to socialize, and that's why Facebook works. By the way, when is the discussion about whether Twitter will successed or not going to end? People either like, and it will organically grow, or they don't. If it isn't intuitive enough, people will not gravitate towards it, no matter how many 101 guides Twitter puts out. I feel it's a fad for now that will utlimately evolve into something else. We'll just have to wait and see what that is..

Neld · 4 months ago

Right, as a 18yr old newbie programmer I have no time for Twitter.

heather · 4 months ago

I kind of find this hard to believe considering I'm 19 and have been using twitter obsessively for a while, not to mention the majority of my friends use it too. the whole lot of us college students have relinquished control of Facebook to young kids and retirees and we've all migrated to Twitter.

Haris · 4 months ago

I'm 15 years old. I started using Twitter @ 14 years!

Tarryn Blackwood · 4 months ago

We speculated on this earlier this week on our blog...http://theyouthconspiracy.com/blog/show/twitter_-_a_youth_analysis

SteveSeager · 4 months ago

Teens are 'mobile'. Oldies like us are laptop. That's all.

Matt · 4 months ago

Wow, teens aren't complete idiots! Can't say the same for the rest of you. GET A LIFE!

João Arruda · 4 months ago

Because teens are too busy with online games to find time to tweet :P Plus, Twitter is basically just a text message and I think teens are more inclined to interact with images. Finally, everyone gives much value to their privacy but I'm sure teens here are at the top of the list because, in my opinion, most of them prefer to share their thoughts with RL friends instead of sharing them in a public (perhaps too public for them?) online space. That's why they prefer Facebook.

Garry Leigh · 4 months ago

Teens IM. Adults Tweet.

Matt Sawyers · 4 months ago

Yes! Exactly!

BostonBevs · 4 months ago

too many people tweet for the wrong reasons. twitter should be for min2min news for subjects that people other than your friends would be interested in. tweeting "dude im tired" or "ya i am the shit", is for myspace, fb, and IM. twitter has opened many outlets for local news and biz to reach local users, as well as, interest in areas that arent convient. sorry if i sound stupid opera mobile is still in beta.

Anterpreet Singh · 4 months ago

I am 17, but I tweet a lot :D

Anterpreet Singh · 4 months ago

I am 17, but I tweet a lot :D

Karen · 4 months ago

I think there are two factors at work here: Teens typically are glued to their mobile devices, so the fact that they didn't count mobile devices leaves out a large segment of the teen population. Also, I think that massive bubble of growth between the 25-54 range is because Twitter does have a business-y reputation (agreeing with the poster below). I work in a business environment, and I am inundated with offers for ways to "market your business on Twitter." If Neilsen did a survey that included Tweetdeck and mobile apps in six months time, I think you'd see a different result.

ella mutuc · 4 months ago

i'm just 21... and i tweet a lot, as in a lot... and most of the people i follow are under 25...

KicksLit · 4 months ago

The overwhelming majority of twitter users use it for a marketing tool. Whether they're programmers, designers, news channels, celebrities...all of these people are marketing a product (be it their services, their product, or their "celebrity" image).

Simply put, Twitter is now a marketing tool. And children aren't interested in "pimping their product" so to speak. Twitter's not necessarily a "fun and engaging" place. It's simply a marketing tool. I do believe it will expire, as is always the case, and be replaced with yet another trendy marketing tool.

Interestingly, my 14 year old sister has a twitter account. She abandoned it and doesn't use it anymore. She uses other onlne tools to chat with her friends.

I do believe that Twitter relies on a lot of hype and abandoned accounts...and little else.

Jake · 4 months ago

Maybe because of the 140 character limit? Yes, they do it on their cellphones but that is mobile. Twitter is an internet application and on the internet they don't want their conversations limited to 140 characters. Besides, have you ever known a teenager to be able to chat in less than 140 characters?

Barbarella · 4 months ago

"Besides, have you ever known a teenager to be able to chat in less than 140 characters?"

Hahah, yeah like they can like really like do that, ermmm.... like. ;)

Matt Sawyers · 4 months ago

I think most teenagers tend to have simplier smart phones that actually make it harder to use twitter (namely reading them) therefore they are more likely to find that it is easier to text message each other. I also feel that they probably don't like change... They have myspace & facebook. What more could they possibly need?

Contrary to that. Assuming they had Twitter accounts & had device updates on, it's actually cheaper to tweet than to text message.

KicksLit · 4 months ago

Also, any youth here who claim to "tweet a lot" aren't really helping the cause. Presumably, you're on Mashable because you're interested in new media/web 2.0 tools. Twitter has a strong "computer geek" following. So naturally, if you're a geek, no matter what your age is, it's not at all surprising that you would have a Twitter account.

The bigger question is, how many people outside of Mashable's audience (and all of the other tech blog audiences) use Twitter.

Simone · 4 months ago

i have never gone on Mashable at all untill i read this article and i'm a teen who uses twitter excessively

Estêvão Soares · 4 months ago

Why they are on Trending Topics today? #teens

Punky FROM BOSTON · 4 months ago

you have to be kidding my. i'm 17 & i had 5,350 followers on my old twitter b4 it got hacked u mean to tell me they were all over 25? and look at @souljaboytellem's followers he has millions how many damn people are on twitter? and why did the title have to be "teens don't tweet" then what am i? a grown women. you shud have said "low teens tweet' the tittle dissapointed me LOL

eef · 4 months ago

If tweens don't tweet, then who/what are Miley Cyrus, Demi Lovato, Taylor Swift and all those people that tweet constantly..??

Chuck Mattina · 4 months ago

Teens text, they don't tweet. They text, they don't talk anymore. It's more private, and they don't want the 140 character limitation. Twitter has yet to declare what IT wants to be, and in the process, it is in danger of letting teens and tweens define it for them - and they appear to be choosing irrelevance.

bobby · 4 months ago

I'm under 25...for about 5 more weeks! :(

Bonnie McEwan · 4 months ago

Twitter is great because it allows us to express ideas quickly, as opposed to longer format vehicles like blogs and comment sections. Perhaps teens are less attracted to this feature than are working people. Also, teens seem to use social media for truly social purposes, while many of us on Twitter are actually exchanging business ideas. The content on Twitter may be less interesting to teens and they may be less interested in connecting to new people than in talking to friends that they already have.

Tess · 4 months ago

I am 15. Have had twitter for about 4 months now. I love twitter.. i have a complete obsession. So you can't say that I don't tweet. A lot of the people i follow are my age too.. but i do follow quite a few that are in their 20-30s.. I am apart of the 16% :D

jadE · 4 months ago

I'm 19 and nobody I know tweets except my 24 y/o sister. When talking about twitter all my friends inevitable ask "What's the point?" They don't see it. They see twitter a 140 character roadblock. "Whaaaat? I can only say something in 140 chars or less? OMG but i have so much to say!" I hate to sound like an old hag but kids today are more stimulated by visual interaction (myspace/youtube/facebook etc...) On twitter, you can't post comments on other peoples "walls" or "pics" I mean sure there's twitpic but it's different. I don't mean to be harsh, but he majority of young people like to be see & be seen and have their self-worth confirmed by other people (via comments etc and adding "friends"). Twitter doesn't allow that, of course you can post a custom background image, "@ reply", and you can also post links to your photo albums but it's just not the same for them.

The thing about twitter is, to a lot of people, it's a blank slate. You have to work (not very hard mind you) to get followers. You have to be saying something interesting in order to keep them. I love twitter because I'm very spontaneous and i love being able to blurt out whatever I want whenever I want in an instant. & the feeling of instantly connecting with MILLIONS of people around the world is amazing.

kelsey · 4 months ago

this is ridiculous. im 14 and tweeted 542 times since april. the title of this article is wrong. it shouldnt be "teens dont tweet" it should be "not many teens tweet". because teens dont tweet isnt true.

Johny Ho · 4 months ago

This might actually play a bit in the stats on how twitter and facebook are different vehicles, not necessarily competing ones, as analysts insists on comparing.

Paul · 4 months ago

i feel slightly sad (strange or what?) to be in the minority of tweeting under 25's. and to be in the 10% of under 25's using TweetDeck. (possibly stranger than feeling sad). Im 15 and tweet fairly regularly. Only recently have i hit a small dry spell of tweets. but picked back up today to find that twitter is a site lost on us teens?

Simone · 4 months ago

i know a lot of teens who tweet, myself being one such example. pretty sure im addicted to it. i think this study is inaccurate

Programmøren · 4 months ago

As we can see from the statistics, the difference between the three age groups is getting smaller, so if this continues, there will be just as many teens than 55+ in less than a year.

Miranda Doerfler · 4 months ago

My friends hate Twitter and they don't even know what it is. *shrugs* I love it, and I'm 18. I am on Twitter practically every second of the day, lol. And Facebook stole the "real-time updating" thing from Twitter, so that's probably preventing teens from going to Twitter and just staying on Facebook.

allie · 4 months ago

How can they generate stats based only on twitter.com site visits? It's not a wonder that the stats don't match up—young people acclimated to using cell phones and desktop apps to tweet immediately. I got twitter in late 2007 and immediately began texting tweets vs. web updates, then the apps came. Come on, data, get wit it!

Olaf Wolff · 4 months ago

I think the twitter usage of young people is still over proportional compared to demographics.

Jaclyn · 4 months ago

Woot woot part of the 16% right here! *20*

I've even tried to get my friends to join Twitter they dont "get it". I try to explain, I basicly sell a product but the usual response is "Why not just use facebook".

I usually give up there.

My excitment over google analytics usually compares to there's of beer pong and clubbing. So maybe I'm just in the wrong boat :).

Pete · 4 months ago

The typical "It's good that teens don't tweet, this way we can keep it mature" are really annoying, mainly because I can assure that 50% of the tweet world is as immature as us teens, if not more. True, most teens that I see around tweet about futile things - as do the so called "mature" people. And I have yet to see a teen tweeting about "#iwillneverforget your moms last night!!!!!! lololol". I won't even get into detail on how "lololol" would mean "laugh out loud out loud out loud", but seriously, don't use the "age is maturity" argument, it has been proved wrong countless times.

Molly · 4 months ago

I think it's a lovely surprise. Maybe instead of tweeting, they're outside. (unlikely, I know, but I can dream)

Amanda · 4 months ago

in Brazil, Twitter is a tendency among young people. all my friends tweet!

Jamie Skinner · 4 months ago

Cashmore, your graph shows 16% of 2-24 year olds tweet. That's hardly worth the title "Teens Don't Tweet". I'm 13 mate, had two accounts, and made over 1200 tweets since March this year.

Lisa · 4 months ago

The problem is that most folks under 25 (self included) were already using Facebook, or even Myspace, before Twitter popped up. Lots of my friends just see Twitter as Facebook without all the "good stuff," so there's really no reason to get involved in another social media site.

There's also the issue that teens don't necessarily have as much computer/phone access. Though obviously this changes once people hit college, in high school and such social media sites tend to be blocked, and people don't necessarily have smart phones capable of accessing Twitter on the go. If that's all one's updating, it doesn't seem like as critical an app.

Jamie Skinner · 4 months ago

Cashmore, your graph shows 16% of 2-24 year olds tweet. That's hardly worth the title "Teens Don't Tweet". I'm 13 mate, had two accounts, and made over 1200 tweets since March this year.

Augusto Maurer · 4 months ago

Too much noise for nothing - for, as already pointed in previous comments, this is a classical example of how stats can "prove" anything one wishes.

Just assume that the 1/4 rate between the twitting percents of people under 25 (couldn't avoid laughing at the 2 (!) year old limit of the first category...) over those from 25 to 54 plainly denotes that this difference wouldn't be so dramatic if the down limit of the sample has been shifted to 10 yearold users.

Also: Twitter, as oposed to previous relational environments, is focused primarily in statement rather than in image, so presuming a minimum of opinion, information and articulated discourse - clearly not among the competences in which media teens generally excell.

Augusto Maurer
Porto Alegre, RS, Brasil
www.antaresmusica.com.br

Kirstin · 4 months ago

I completely understand this, of everyone in my year about 160, I know 2 others that twitter... one is never on & the other only uses it because I use it. Boys actually think it's geeky that I use twitter but I think that's more due to the fact that they don't really understand the concept of it. Thankfully my mum can't use a computer and my dad would never waste his time trying to follow me so I'm safe. I quite like it due to the openness, I wouldn't call myself the "typical" 16 year old and enjoy finding out more about the world and the people in it than who so-and-so is dating or who got grounded for getting caught drinking. However I have had times when random people have replied when I least expected in but I guess that's the fun of it.

Kirstin · 4 months ago

I completely understand this, of everyone in my year about 160, I know 2 others that twitter... one is never on & the other only uses it because I use it. Boys actually think it's geeky that I use twitter but I think that's more due to the fact that they don't really understand the concept of it. Thankfully my mum can't use a computer and my dad would never waste his time trying to follow me so I'm safe. I quite like it due to the openness, I wouldn't call myself the "typical" 16 year old and enjoy finding out more about the world and the people in it than who so-and-so is dating or who got grounded for getting caught drinking. However I have had times when random people have replied when I least expected in but I guess that's the fun of it.

Kirstin Stewart · 4 months ago

I completely understand this, of everyone in my year about 160, I know 2 others that twitter... one is never on & the other only uses it because I use it. Boys actually think it's geeky that I use twitter but I think that's more due to the fact that they don't really understand the concept of it. Thankfully my mum can't use a computer and my dad would never waste his time trying to follow me so I'm safe. I quite like it due to the openness, I wouldn't call myself the "typical" 16 year old and enjoy finding out more about the world and the people in it than who so-and-so is dating or who got grounded for getting caught drinking. However I have had times when random people have replied when I least expected it but I guess that's the fun of it.

Whoops sorry for the spam, too stupid to check if it had actually posted.

Katie · 4 months ago

If teens don't tweet than explain why Miley has more than 1 million followers and why Her and The Jonas Brothers are always Trending Topics?

Punit Shah · 4 months ago

Does that mean that people aged 2 use Twitter?
And I don't understand how there are more people over 55 on Twitter than people under 25...

Caleb · 4 months ago

The teen category is no proportional to the "adult' category. 10 year span vs. 30 year span is not going to get you an accurate count. I'd like to see this redone in 10 year increments. Obviously 5yr-15yr will be low, but 15-25 might be a bit higher then 45-55. We won't know unless its in 10 year increments.

E.K. · 4 months ago

My 16yr old says that Twitter is for stalking people and for people creeping on you, she believes there is no control of information anyone can read what you Tweet, no privacy.

jayme · 4 months ago

Actually, this is pretty simply obvious. We're all tweeting on our phones.

Jaclyn · 4 months ago

True that!

Beau Giles  · 4 months ago

I'm fifteen and I've been twittering, for over two years infact!

Matt Ritter · 4 months ago

What does it mean for Twitter's future? Twitter is already seen as a large, rapidly growing, influential form of communication and networking. What this means is that if people under 25 get hooked (it's only a matter of time, I think) it will spread like wildfire and become so much larger than it already is. They've already got the more difficult demographics out of the way.

Miranda · 4 months ago

This is just shocking.

King_D · 4 months ago

teens (normally) dont have an internet page span beyond FB, Myspace, and Some Music sites. They literally have nothing to tweet about.

Steven Millman · 4 months ago

Classic misrepresentation of data here guys! If people tweeted in percentage identical to their makeup in the population, we'd have 18% (age 14-25), 55% (age 25-54), and 27% (age 55+). Compare that to 16%, 64%, and 20% respectively. All this tells us is that senior citizens tweet less than their percentage of the population which is no shock at all. Data from the 2000 Censuss 2000 was used for US pop stats.

King_D · 4 months ago

teens (normally) dont have an internet page span beyond FB, Myspace, and Some Music sites. They literally have nothing to tweet about.

taraaaa · 4 months ago

i am 15 and i most definately tweet but very few of my friends do.
mostly because they can't be fucked get it and it yet another web-site they'll be checking everyday

Terri · 4 months ago

if the under 25 crew is the minority, how in the world do all the 'fluff' trends keep going? Please don't tell me that supposedly mature adults are have kept the Jonas Brothers, Miley, etc trending. Hells bells, I've actually wondered if an under 30 twitter was not necessary to deal with the nonsense. Now that I'm discovering that the 25 to 54's are running the show, this is really scaring me.

Nasos Dimitriadis · 4 months ago

I guess it mostly has to do something with the usage of the social networking tool.
Teens tend to pick other social networks because by average they seek to satisfy the needs for communication, sexual attraction and chilling out. That said, twitter doesn't provide photo album and even if they try hard to meet some girl/boy using messaging, it doesn't even reach IM levels.

But to avoid confusion, what I am talking about is based by personal experience. Thus, teens that don't have time to twitter due to work overdose will eventually use it when they'll derive fruits from their current hardship, to promote themselves and, eventually reach the next level of the social networking.

Rob · 4 months ago

I'm glad. My generation are bloody morons, most of them. There have been times when I've considered branching a "Geek Twitter" - Just to get away from some of the ass-hats that are, my generation (Read: Scene, Emo, Fail).

Chris Horton · 4 months ago

This comes as a shock, to the 17 year old that uses Twitter like a maniac. I use twitter with all my friends. But stats are stats.

Alastair Creelman · 4 months ago

Very interesting and ties in with surveys on, say, Second Life. It seems to be the 25+ market that's driving these applications. Many teens I know are happy with MSN, texting, YouTube and Facebook and see little point in many newer apps. But it's not an age issue. There is no net generation really - some people (whatever their age) are interested in trying new technologies and some are not. Anyway it's not the names of the tools that is interesting it's the general trends in how we communicate and how that is developing.

Emily · 4 months ago

Teens are more interested in communicating with their friends (facebook) not a bunch of random people they don't know. In general, tweets are public and anyone can read them, so they don't want to put up anything that might get themselves in trouble (or why veer away from facebook if you're going to use twitter for the same exact purpose?). I only use twitter to find interesting news and links (another thing teens probably aren't very interested in) and generally only follow people who post such things unless they are my friends because I too do not care what random people have on their minds.

If they want teens to start using twitter there needs to be a new benefit for them that they can't find somewhere else.

Digital Revolution · 4 months ago

My son is three years old and I'm ashamed to say he is adding to the teen twitter void those stats reflect... ;) Which is my way of saying I completely agree with those comments that point out the somewhat spurious age ranges at play in those stats. 2yrs-24yrs as compared with 25-54? The groups aren't even equal in years.

I'd point you towards the young people (all under 24) speaking at Tomorrow's Web conference in London this weekend http://tomorrowswebconf.com/speakers ALL of whom have Twitter accounts.

But, those are tech geek young people, you say? Well, proportionally, I'd say there were many more tech geek people using twitter (and I mean USING it, not signing up because Oprah and Stephen Fry did, then never use it) than any other demographic.

I'll be attending the Tomorrow's Web conference as part of trying to find out more about the future of the web from those in the future's driving seat - and hoping they'll engage with the BBC open source documentary production about the web http://www.bbc.co.uk/digitalrevolution/

Will make a point of asking them about the role of twitter in their lives and projects.

~danb

Tess · 4 months ago

Ok, i see heaps of people who are older who say teens IM and older people tweet. when thats not true. alot of people over the age of 20 use IM.. i know people over 40 who IM and who said thats all we teens do? If your not the teens then you shouldn't speak for us. Yes, most teens don't use twitter, but that's mainly because it takes a while to understand twitter and until you have someone to talk to on twitter. or someones tweets to read.. they find it quite boring.. and most teenagers cant be bothered to stay on for a few weeks till they work out how interesting it can be.. teenagers just don't have the patience. Myspace & facebook u connect with your friends instantly and have a ton of different things to do.. Twitter, not the same. So i can understand why teenagers aren't as fussed about twitter as older people.. but i am apart of the 16% who love twitter and haven't reached the age of 25. :D Still have another 10 yrs till then.

Erfolg5@aol.com · 4 months ago

Ich weiss nicht genau , aber ich habe das Gefühl das ich für dich nur ein stück verblödetes Fleisch bin. Ich glaube das zwischen den Zeilen zu lesen. Bitte lass dir sagen ich bin von Beruf
Chemiker mit Dipl. leider nur Arbeitslos wegen dem Chaos das hier herrscht. Ich kann nicht good Englisch. Aber aber weißt Du was z.B. Kaliumpermanganat ist oder sonstiges? Also wenn du mich schon nicht ausstehen kannst dann lasse deine zynischen bemerkungen . So etwas macht man nicht . Das ist als würdest du auf jemanden Einschlagen , der schon am Boden liegt. Ich habe in einigen büchern immer wieder gelesen das ist als Marketingexperte (der aller Beste) mehr Psychologibücher lesen anstatt Mickymouse . Ausserdem kommst du NUR Arrogant und Überheblich rüber. Bist Du etwa ein Kaiser? Es Heist : wer andere Menschen führen will , muss lernen hinter ihnen zu laufen. Sollte ich irgend etwas falsch verstanden haben so entschuldige ich mich. Aber diesen Eindruck hast du nunmal bei mir hinterlassen. Soooooo Das war das Wort zum Sonntag.-!

Ben · 4 months ago

Assertion: Teens Don't Tweet
Negation: I am a teen, and I tweet.

Erfolg5@aol.com · 4 months ago

Ich weiss nicht genau , aber ich habe das Gefühl das ich für dich nur ein stück verblödetes Fleisch bin. Ich glaube das zwischen den Zeilen zu lesen. Bitte lass dir sagen ich bin von Beruf
Chemiker mit Dipl. leider nur Arbeitslos wegen dem Chaos das hier herrscht. Ich kann nicht good Englisch. Aber aber weißt Du was z.B. Kaliumpermanganat ist oder sonstiges? Also wenn du mich schon nicht ausstehen kannst dann lasse deine zynischen bemerkungen . So etwas macht man nicht . Das ist als würdest du auf jemanden Einschlagen , der schon am Boden liegt. Ich habe in einigen büchern immer wieder gelesen das ist als Marketingexperte (der aller Beste) mehr Psychologibücher lesen anstatt Mickymouse . Ausserdem kommst du NUR Arrogant und Überheblich rüber. Bist Du etwa ein Kaiser? Es Heist : wer andere Menschen führen will , muss lernen hinter ihnen zu laufen. Sollte ich irgend etwas falsch verstanden haben so entschuldige ich mich. Aber diesen Eindruck hast du nunmal bei mir hinterlassen. Soooooo Das war das Wort zum Sonntag.-!

Captain Gadzooks · 4 months ago

Teens have not yet developed a keen interest in self promotion. It's sufficient for them to send <160 character messages directly to other teens. They don't need the Web medium because they're not selling anything.

Give our teens time and have faith. They'll soon grow into bright, young-adult internet marketers, ready to seize consumers by the throat through the intertoobs.

me · 4 months ago

Because the kids are lazy, they're waiting for "thoughter" where you just think what you want to tweet and it posts it for you.. >.>

The Collectors Hub · 4 months ago

I would be interested to find out why teens are not using Twitter.

Tess · 4 months ago

Well i think it's because its not that interesting when you first start twitter.. You don't know what to do, how to do it... nothing.. Teens get bored easy. They're not going to stick around and wait till they understand it & it becomes interesting.

Lisa Stanforth · 4 months ago

I wonder if it's partly because while teenagers' social network mostly consists of people they see on a daily basis and can talk to in person (high school/college students), many people in the 25-54 demographic are now in the professional/working world and have spread out geographically from their friends and family; they are also reaching out to other contacts to further their social/business connections. Therefore, their social network consists of people they don't see or talk to on a daily basis but want to stay updated with. Hmmmm?

mobihead · 4 months ago

IMHO Young people are less likely to tweet because they perfer to communicate within their own networks, older people are more likely to tweet because they feel they have something to say (old war stories syndrome)

viicOop · 4 months ago

hmmmm..w3ll..twiitter iit iisZ mOr3 liik3 grOw-uUpsZ iin a waii..but th3re'sZ teensZ twiittiing..nOt a lOt..but th3re iisZ

Chris Murray · 4 months ago

I tweet when I'm doing other things, namely working!! It is asynchronous communication and sharing. Teenagers have a very different lifestyle and have much more free time which I imagine, they want to spend directly interacting with their friends (IM, text, phone, in person!).

my initial thoughts.

Laura · 4 months ago

In my opinion (yes, I'm a teen however I work in an IT company so I'm a little more tech savvy than the average 18 year old), Facebook offers everything Twitter does to teens and more. We look to socially network and communicate with our friends, and when almost none of our friends are on Twitter, what's the point? Facebook's "status updates" are our equivalent to a Tweet, so what's the point in Twittering?

Also, it's easier to share our personal content with our friends on Facebook (i.e. pictures, videos, links) and because that's what teens want to do at our age, Facebook dominates Twitter.

Rachii · 4 months ago

I'm 16 and I use it every day! And I'm sure others do too because there's often Jonas Brothers/Miley Cyrus in the trending topics and surely over 25s don't tweet about them?!

ruthersish · 4 months ago

Teens prefer closed networks like Facegroup... where they share with a select group of friends. They're not quite confident (or full of BS) enough to announce their views to the entire world.

Connor Turnbull · 4 months ago

I'm a teen and I tweet every day! I tweet so much, that (according to Twitterholic.com) I am the 249th in the United Kingdom. I have to say, that at school, I only know of one fellow tweeter. Most people do turn to Facebook, probably because of the amount of people on their. If people in schools started using twitter, the stats would jump up. I think Twitter is now a place, mainly for older generations and corporations.The top followed people on Twitter are aplusk and CNN, which young people don't really care about. Until I heard about the 1m follower competition, I had no idea who Ashton whoever-his-name-is was. I agree with the comment by "capobecchino": twitter is more geek. Yet, I am still suprised. Maybe twitter should build-in some photo/video sharing features.
--ConnorJack

Gaxx · 4 months ago

I'm really not sure why everyone finds it so suprising that teens aren't the main body of twitter. The age range identified in the report already heavily use texting services and it would seem that twitter doesn't offer a great deal over that, especially if you plan to keep your communications private or semi-private.

For us oldies who still like our keyboards, mice etc it's a different matter of course....

mfm · 4 months ago

weird data to me. what is the reason for the age bracket spanning down to toddler years?

diederik · 4 months ago

obviously, teens don't READ. All teens that tweet are part of the 16% younger people that do use twitter. The stats don't ignore that you tweet! We know you exist...

Lauren Leschper · 4 months ago

I think it really depends on who you talk to. Also, "under 25" is such a broad range of people. I'm 22, and a lot of my peers use twitter (some excessively). I would love to see stats for a more narrow age range...I think the 20-25 year olds are probably well represented on twitter. But then, everything is skewed by personal perspective; just because my friends tweet and Gchat (rather than use Myspace and AIM, for example) doesn't mean all recent college grads have the same social media habits.

Lauren Leschper · 4 months ago

Also, Twitter is so many things to so many different people. It can be used for networking, to socialize, to build brand personality.

Henry · 4 months ago

M a teen and I use Twitter but most of the people I know don't mainly because they think it is reading about other people and most are self absorbed and don't care and don't use Twitter

David Warwick · 4 months ago

Why does the graph start with 2 to 24 (how many 2 year old kids Twitter). If every year from 17 to 24 equated to 2 percent, it would be similar to the large 25 to 54 bracket if all 29 years equated to 2 percent per year. The chart is rubbish. Why not 11 to 20, 21 to 30, 31 to 40. Let me guess, then there would be no story. Nielsen - lift your game!

Connor Turnbull · 4 months ago

I'm a teen and I tweet every day! I tweet so much, that (according to Twitterholic.com) I am the 249th in the United Kingdom. I have to say, that at school, I only know of one fellow tweeter. Most people do turn to Facebook, probably because of the amount of people on their. If people in schools started using twitter, the stats would jump up. I think Twitter is now a place, mainly for older generations and corporations.The top followed people on Twitter are aplusk and CNN, which young people don't really care about. Until I heard about the 1m follower competition, I had no idea who Ashton whoever-his-name-is was. I agree with the comment by "capobecchino": twitter is more geek. Yet, I am still suprised. Maybe twitter should build-in some photo/video sharing features.
--ConnorJack

Connor Turnbull · 4 months ago

Actually, now updated: i'm 179th in the UK =D

Matthew Willison · 4 months ago

Maybe because teens are not so self obsessed with what we're doing at all moments through the day, we much more prefer our Facebook and MySpace where we can upload pictures of our mundane lives and try to show how good we are.

We're truly a self obsessed society aren't we? I hope we can pry our eyes away from ourselves long enough to be able to actually have a LOOK at ourselves!

Lauren Leschper · 4 months ago

I think it really depends on who you talk to. Also, "under 25" is such a broad range of people. I'm 22, and a lot of my peers use twitter (some excessively). I would love to see stats for a more narrow age range...I think the 20-25 year olds are probably well represented on twitter. But then, everything is skewed by personal perspective; just because my friends tweet and Gchat (rather than use Myspace and AIM, for example) doesn't mean all recent college grads have the same social media habits.

Wayne · 4 months ago

I am surprised anyone is surprised by this news. I have asked my 13 year old daughter and 12 year old step-son numerous times over the last year if they are on twitter. These two are extreme ends of the popularity scale and neither of them are on twitter and none of their friends are either.

While not scientific, my "little" survey was enough to convince me that teens don't tweet. It was also enough to keep me off twitter and to report in my own blog that twitter wouldn't last long (idea being that if kids are doing something on the internet, then it won't last long)

My view about Twitter changed when Mashable recently updated a story on twitter accounts showing up higher in search results than websites. This and studying how Obama used twitter in his election campaign, seeing Bruno lose money at least in part due to tweets, and seeing the backlash against MS and IE6 recently (also started by Mashable). Considering all this I think Twitter is going to keep growing.

As for why kids aren't using Twitter...I think it is because they are texting. Text has everything they need without lugging around a computer. For social networking online, they turn to MySpace.

Christian Anhalt · 4 months ago

I love to tweet... and I'm only 15! Who came up with this chart? I have other 15-16 year old friends and they all tweet as much as I do!

Kerstin W · 4 months ago

Interesting how I started tweeting unknowingly exactly the right age, by 25.

I'm not sure how accurate this study is since it left out a huge group of users but let's assume it is for now. I see several reasons why twitter might be more interesting for grown ups (I refuse ro refer to myself as old yet) than for teenagers.

Fore once facebook and myspace have been around a little longer than twitter and become quite popular. so I guess lots of teenagers simply found there something that works for them and are not too thrilled by twitter. why fix something that's not broken?

Next, the old twitter start page explicitily mentioned parents and co-workers. must have sounded rather deterring for teens if they didn't know much about the site. whereas older people might get interested in something that says: hey, look at me, I'm useful.

aside from that twitter doesn't ask you to share everything about you when you start. you don't get the feeling that you have to create a page that exposes your whole life. you can just start reading, get used to it, participate later on your own terms. this step by step entry makes it easy for adults to start something new if they haven't been into social media before.

Kristen · 4 months ago

I'm 19, and it's true. More often than not, my peers don't tweet. And much to my surprise, some of them don't even know what Twitter is. I wish that this wasn't the case - I would like all my friends to be networked together by this site, so that I could update my Twitter status to "at the diner - come join!", etc. and my friends would all receive it via Twitter and spontaneous social events would commence. Instead, I find my self following only about 100 people, and I only know about 5 of them personally. All of my tweets come from news updates, celebrities, TV shows, and random people with common interests. I don't have any friends to follow and communicate with. I'm at a loss for how to attract any friends to Twitter...they all have Facebooks and they are content with that. I guess what I like about Twitter is that I see potential for it to build connections, me being a college student who will be looking for great jobs and opportunities along the way and post-graduation. This may sound a bit presumptuous, but I think that most other young people aren't mature enough to see their social ties as tools for their future. They care about posting pictures of them at last weekend's party, and stalking other people via Facebook. Not a lot of other people are interested in the possibility of building a Twitter relationship that is not just for the sake of attention and friendship - sometimes it's all about the networking and most teens don't grasp that.

Graham Brown · 4 months ago

Agree with the premise here although the presentation of the data is misleading. "2-24"? seems hopeful. It seems odd that they're comparing 2-24 yr olds as a % of total against a significantly larger group of 25-54 yr olds.

Even if you considered 13-24 as the realistic age range for response - 16%/(13-24)yrs = 1.45x wherease 64%/(25-54) = 2.2x.

In numbers, 13-24 yr olds are 53.1m vs 25-54 yr olds @ 127.5m. That means there are 2.4x more 25-54 yr olds than measurable 13-24 yr olds.

In short, poor reporting by Nielsen - they have used this data to skew a message which is partly true but not to the degree reported.

Not a major difference and I would add from the trends, that the gap is closing fast.

kahren =] · 4 months ago

i`m 14 and absolutely TEENAGER ! and i tweet all the time. Cause i love twitter so much :D

kahren =] · 4 months ago

i`m 14 and absolutely TEENAGER ! and i tweet all the time. Cause i love twitter so much :D

MeMeMe1 · 4 months ago

I'd love to have these stats for different countries. I'm in the UK and it seems to me a lot of young people are on Twitter as well as older folk.

kahren =] · 4 months ago

i`m 14 and absolutely TEENAGER ! and i tweet all the time. Cause i love twitter so much :D

Brandon · 4 months ago

I love the blanket statements like 'teens don't use Twitter' - obviously not true. Kind of like 'nobody goes on MySpace anymore' - also clearly false. Why the obsession over the numbers and breakdowns of who is doing what? If you like Twitter, then Tweet. If your company finds value in interacting with people on Twitter, then join the conversation. If you think it's a waste of time, then move on. IMO, people would be wise to trust their instincts, not the latest survey or article.

Jeni · 4 months ago

epic fail. try testing the UK, tons of teens use it here.

Jay · 4 months ago

Teens most definitely do tweet. But really, people over 55 tweet?

Nathan Driskell · 4 months ago

I'm 23, and not only do I use Twitter, I also set up an account for the museum I manage marketing for, @TheGraceMuseum. I post tweets on both obsessively. Guess I'm another oddball youngster.

Brandon · 4 months ago

I love the blanket statements like 'teens don't use Twitter' - obviously not true. Kind of like 'nobody goes on MySpace anymore' - also clearly false. Why the obsession over the numbers and breakdowns of who is doing what? If you like Twitter, then Tweet. If your company finds value in interacting with people on Twitter, then join the conversation. If you think it's a waste of time, then move on. IMO, people would be wise to trust their instincts, not the latest survey or article.

Adrienne · 4 months ago

I mostly use Twitter as a customized/quick news feed or a means of crowdsourcing for info. I actually have no idea if any of my "real friends" follow me on twitter. Teens like to use social media as a means of communication and connecting with friends. If that's the case, it makes sense that an older demographic more interested in absorbing news than communicating with friends would be using it more heavily.

alexxx · 4 months ago

im sure thats its because twitter is more of a mature, older thing. younger teens are much too impatient for it and would get bored with it quickly. also, they may not even understand.

Elizabeth K. Barone · 4 months ago

Interesting, as I'd initially discounted those claims because I know a lot of teens who are on Twitter! Not to mention that I'm almost 21.

I'm not sure this affects Twitter at all, honestly; I think it's catching on to teens and will continue to. I guess we'll see!

Elizabeth K. Barone · 4 months ago

Actually, after looking at the stats again, I noticed that most people using Twitter are in the working class. Let's face it; people 25-54 are likely working in a specialized field. Anyone younger than that is likely still in college and anyone older than that is likely retired. Both of those groups are possibly using Twitter strictly for the social aspect -- not the professional aspect that a lot of people are catching onto. But then again, you could also argue that Twitter is very flexible and can be used for a lot of different things, so this might not really be the case. Still, it's definitely interesting!

noah hughes · 4 months ago

i'm not really surprised about teens not twittering. i am a teen myself. i started twittering when i was 16. i'm now 17 and i have loved every minuet of it! iv'e found with many teens, and even young adults, that they have this strange need to always be amused. granted, twitter is very amusing but it is also very interactive. in fact; it would be impossible to have twitter a account and not be at least somewhat interactive. on sites like facebook and myspace, all you have to do is create an account, add your already existing friends, post a music video, and your set. whereas on twitter, it take time to cultivate your following, and 99% of the time its people you don't even know that live on the other side of of world. so has twitter failed? no! it has not failed! the only failure is in todays youth. they would rather stay in there fuzzy little worlds that revolve around them. "its My Space, not yours' is the common attitude. i actually think that some social media sites are getting so out of control that is is starting to harm them. for instance, facebook has become so overloaded with applications like farmville and mafia wars that its almost impossible to log on without getting "poked" or "kidnapped". these things seem to be mindless and brain dulling. i have talked to many facebook users that are tired of the endless buffoonery and just wish it would return to its original form.
twitter has been completely genus from the very beginning and they should not alter it just for the sake of involving a crowd of mindless uninteractive teens.

Ralf · 4 months ago

I can't believe you deem this to be news?!? I basically answered this question in my comment to some other post yesterday. Teens don't use Twitter cos cos it's crap. Simple as that. It's currently the trendy way to send spam (naive people use the term Marketing Tool) and other than that it's about as useful as a piece of elastic running through the arms of your coat and attached to your gloves that grandma knitted. And that's why kids don't use it.

It's a fad, any fool can see that. 15 to 10 years ago we had IRC, who uses that now? And you really think that in 10 to 15 years from now we'll still be using Twitter?!? Get real.

Oh look, there's the emperor! I read on a blog yesterday he's wearing his new suit. Must be true then.

http://spare-a-talent.blogspot.com

Chris Horton · 4 months ago

Haha...so when the bombing happened in Europe you didn't get the news off of Twitter? Because that's where the new FIRST showed up. People that don't use Twitter can't say it's bad. If you connect with Twitter and use it to it's fullest there is more than meets the eyes. Yeah, Twitter is a transformer. If you don't like it that's fine but look around, EVERYONE ELSE is a teen saying how much they love Twitter. And aren't teens known for "fads"? That's what I've been told. And if you were a twitter user, you'ld see that the number one thing being posted is Teens saying they use Twitter. So before bashing a site maybe look a little closer. They must being doing SOMETHING right to be growing at their rate. Oh let me guess you think it's all spam?

Ralf · 4 months ago

Chris, no I didn't. I got it the same way people have been getting news for 40 years or more. The TV. Or my BBC news feed, I don't remember. You don't need Twitter for that. And what makes you think I don't use it? I do. And that's why I can say with authority it's pants. It's a glorified spamming tool. There is NOTHING IN THE WORLD that someone can tell me with Twitter that I couldn't otherwise get just as timely from TV, RSS Feeds, Facebook, IM or private Email. Except spam.

You also seem to be proving my theory correct with your argument: Teens are known for "fads" (you said), Twitter is a fad (you seem to imply), Twitter is a growing fad (I agree)... but eventually all fads die out. You really think that in 10 to 15 years from now we'll still be using Twitter?!?

I'm not bashing anyone or anything, except Twitter. I'm just poking fun at people who can't see that the emporer is actually naked!!!

Phoebe · 4 months ago

Well they said they didn't include mobile users. I'm 16 and I tweet constantly, and it's mostly all from my phone via text.

Andrew Varnerin · 4 months ago

This is a terrible 'statistical analysis'. The groups are too broad, and the group sampled is not representative of the whole population. If you are going to do this, do it right, and sample mobile devices. The iPhone is very popular among teens, as are cellphones. I'm 16, and even with the basic stats I learned in calc I know this is flawed.

Effy · 4 months ago

So, you're measuring only people who visit Twitter from the US or is it worldwide? Cause I'm a teen, and I tweet a hell of a lot, but I live in Denmark. Do I count?

Sytse · 4 months ago

Teens do tweet, a better conclusion may be that they do not use Twitter. Look at Facebook for example. Teen do post statusupdates there. The better question would be 'Why teens do post statusupdates on social networks like Facebook, but haven't adopted Twitter as a mainstream social tool yet?'

My guess would be that Facebook has more functionalities on top that are more appealing for teens...

Steph · 4 months ago

Very true. I'm in that elusive age range, but I only joined because a friend did, because an older friend talked him into it. Most people in my high school ( I just graduated) did not know or care about twitter because facebook is more popular and because we're usually too busy with our established lives (both offline and online) to spend our time tweeting about it (plus, why bother when all your friends who you want to see it are on facebook watching your status changes?). This may change of it catches on with more college kids- they started the facebook trend, after all, and anything they do becomes popular I'm high school over time.

symon16 · 4 months ago

i'm not really surprised about teens not twittering. i am a teen myself. i started twittering when i was 16. i'm now 17 and i have loved every minuet of it! iv'e found with many teens, and even young adults, that they have this strange need to always be amused. granted, twitter is very amusing but it is also very interactive. in fact; it would be impossible to have twitter a account and not be at least somewhat interactive. on sites like facebook and myspace, all you have to do is create an account, add your already existing friends, post a music video, and your set. whereas on twitter, it take time to cultivate your following, and 99% of the time its people you don't even know that live on the other side of of world. so has twitter failed? no! it has not failed! the only failure is in todays youth. they would rather stay in there fuzzy little worlds that revolve around them. "its My Space, not yours' is the common attitude. i actually think that some social media sites are getting so out of control that is is starting to harm them. for instance, facebook has become so overloaded with applications like farmville and mafia wars that its almost impossible to log on without getting "poked" or "kidnapped". these things seem to be mindless and brain dulling. i have talked to many facebook users that are tired of the endless buffoonery and just wish it would return to its original form.
twitter has been completely genus from the very beginning and they should not alter it just for the sake of involving a crowd of mindless uninteractive teens.

richard shore · 4 months ago

Twitter is good for sharing information, but Facebook is better for sharing your life.

richard shore · 4 months ago

Twitter is good for sharing information, but Facebook is better for sharing your life.

emily · 4 months ago

Well I am 16, and I tweet every single day, so I don't know what this is all about, most of my followers are teens.

Lauren · 4 months ago

I am 18, and I tweet frequently throughout the day and have been doing so for probably close to a year now. Many of the people I follow on Twitter are fellow bloggers, and they are in their late teens and early twenties. So it honestly surprised me to see that teens and young adults do not make up a large portion of Twitter.
Yet, on the other hand, before graduating, I remember that most of my fellow seniors did not really understand the full potential of Twitter, and only focused on the fact that you get to see exactly when someone is eating a sandwich, or whatever; which, to some people I talked to, seemed over the top -- almost too much information. They didn't seem to get that there is much more to Twitter than that. I'd be willing to bet that I was the only person in my class to actively use Twitter (it's a small school; my class was 150-ish, my still).
I think that as even more info about Twitter gets out, and teens look for new things besides MySpace and Facebook, they will maybe get more into it.

Kristen Ciccolini · 4 months ago

I am 22 and am an avid user of Twitter, but I can understand the difference between me and my younger sister. I have a need for it. I am a journalist and can't get enough of social media and my news feeds because I like to be apart of the conversation. My sister, however, gets everything she needs from the superficiality of Facebook. While Facebook can be used for connecting with friends and keeping up to date with people, that stuff is not for her generation. They want to see and be seen, have the most comments and friends, and tell everyone what cool thing they're doing next. People her age don't want news or to engage in interesting conversations to expand their minds, they just want to talk about themselves.

nicosuave · 4 months ago

hi, my name's nicole. I'm 20 and my peers and I have been tweetaholics since nov 08

Evan · 4 months ago

I'm 20 and I tweet, and a lot of my friends who are considering switching to twitter ask me what it is like. I tell them it's like a facebook status update to which they reply, oh well then I'll just stick to facebook. I think this is because facebook still is supreme in terms of features and profile information and interactiveness, that it just makes it harder for twitter to be as impressive or as exciting to them.

Evan · 4 months ago

I'm 20 and I tweet, and a lot of my friends who are considering switching to twitter ask me what it is like. I tell them it's like a facebook status update to which they reply, oh well then I'll just stick to facebook. I think this is because facebook still is supreme in terms of features and profile information and interactiveness, that it just makes it harder for twitter to be as impressive or as exciting to them.

Allen Weiss · 4 months ago

I wrote about this several months ago http://bit.ly/54rPy Teens already have other ways of connecting and don't see this is some big new phenom

Catarino™ · 4 months ago

Would love to read the tweets from the 2 year old "samples" in this..."report".

Catarino™ · 4 months ago

Would love to read the tweets from the 2 year old "samples" in this..."report".

Catarino™ · 4 months ago

Would love to read the tweets from the 2 year old "samples" in this..."report".

Allen Weiss · 4 months ago

I wrote about this several months ago http://bit.ly/54rPy Teens already have other ways of connecting and don't see this is some big new phenom

Karla · 4 months ago

Based on what I've seen w/my two stepsons, one 21, one 17, they can get the job done with texting and facebook. They text almost constantly and seem to have a network of friends to get information out when needed, so have no need to tweet to 20 people at once. They're also much more obsessed with online gaming than any other kind of technology. My younger stepson comes to our house, with everything he needs to to play online and knows how to set it all up, but when I ask him technical questions about the computer or if he knows about Twitter, I get a blank look and an uninterested shrug.

Tim · 4 months ago

I don't find these stats very surprising - suppose if 95% of the 2 to 24 year old age group actually happened to be over 13, therefore teenagers, it would only mean that roughly half as many teenagers as adults use Twitter, which would be for many social and cultural factors. Yes, teenagers use Twitter less, but extending the lower age range down to 2 year old users makes the difference seem greater.

Bree · 4 months ago

I just turned twenty and signed up for Twitter a bit before my birthday. Most of my friends are hesitant to start Tweeting and think it's lame as hell.
In my opinion, teens prefer to stick to Facebook because Facebook allows them to post pictures, converse with others, fill out silly notes, etc. My mom has a Facebook, and most of my friends' parents have them, but they don't really post many pictures or anything, they just update their statuses and check others' pictures.
Teens like the idea of showing off. We won't admit it, but even I used to use my Facebook for the sole purpose of: LOOK AT HOW CUTE I AM!! LOOK AT HOW FUNNY I AM!!! LOOK AT HOW GOOD MY TASTE IN MUSIC IS!!
Teens also don't like the idea of becoming a little fish, which is sort of what Twitter is. They can't deal with subscribing to hundreds of Tweet-ers (Twitter-ers? Birds?) and getting perhaps two followers.
It's an attention thing.

Electrosaur · 4 months ago

The problem isn't the interest teens have to go on Twitter - it's how long the idea Twitter captivates them to keep using it often. Too many times to mention that I know young people the same age as me try out twitter for a few days, and never come back. Many have the idea that Twitter is a social networking site like Facebook, but the fact is that it's not; Twitter has it's job in the mass media of the internet and Facebook has it's part.
I kept up Twitter because it boosted interest in my dA (deviantART) gallery, and my video blog on YouTube, and also because I thought it was an amazing idea and a great way to 'stay in touch' with the world, I guess you could say. Many teenagers wouldn't have the same need to do this, and instead of broadcasting into pure nothingless (with usually, pure nothingless) they can easily take comfort into letting other people what their doing through sites such as Facebook, Bebo etc., and also their audience there is compiled of usually friends and relatives that they know. Timelines/status messages on such sites doesn't feel as distant on Twitter usually, as when you update people on what you're doing on such sites, at least someone you know will read it and perhaps even comment. On Twitter, it is, at the end of the day, blatant self-confirmation when you start from the very start, having very little or no audience at all. You could even say that that actually is pretty scary thought for any teenager, having no confirmation or acceptance from anyone else out there.
...but I still love you Twitter. mwah.

Electrosaur · 4 months ago

The problem isn't the interest teens have to go on Twitter - it's how long the idea Twitter captivates them to keep using it often. Too many times to mention that I know young people the same age as me try out twitter for a few days, and never come back. Many have the idea that Twitter is a social networking site like Facebook, but the fact is that it's not; Twitter has it's job in the mass media of the internet and Facebook has it's part.
I kept up Twitter because it boosted interest in my dA (deviantART) gallery, and my video blog on YouTube, and also because I thought it was an amazing idea and a great way to 'stay in touch' with the world, I guess you could say. Many teenagers wouldn't have the same need to do this, and instead of broadcasting into pure nothingless (with usually, pure nothingless) they can easily take comfort into letting other people what their doing through sites such as Facebook, Bebo etc., and also their audience there is compiled of usually friends and relatives that they know. Timelines/status messages on such sites doesn't feel as distant on Twitter usually, as when you update people on what you're doing on such sites, at least someone you know will read it and perhaps even comment. On Twitter, it is, at the end of the day, blatant self-confirmation when you start from the very start, having very little or no audience at all. You could even say that that actually is pretty scary thought for any teenager, having no confirmation or acceptance from anyone else out there.
...but I still love you Twitter. mwah.

Electrosaur · 4 months ago

The problem isn't the interest teens have to go on Twitter - it's how long the idea Twitter captivates them to keep using it often. Too many times to mention that I know young people the same age as me try out twitter for a few days, and never come back. Many have the idea that Twitter is a social networking site like Facebook, but the fact is that it's not; Twitter has it's job in the mass media of the internet and Facebook has it's part.
I kept up Twitter because it boosted interest in my dA (deviantART) gallery, and my video blog on YouTube, and also because I thought it was an amazing idea and a great way to 'stay in touch' with the world, I guess you could say. Many teenagers wouldn't have the same need to do this, and instead of broadcasting into pure nothingless (with usually, pure nothingless) they can easily take comfort into letting other people what their doing through sites such as Facebook, Bebo etc., and also their audience there is compiled of usually friends and relatives that they know. Timelines/status messages on such sites doesn't feel as distant on Twitter usually, as when you update people on what you're doing on such sites, at least someone you know will read it and perhaps even comment. On Twitter, it is, at the end of the day, blatant self-confirmation when you start from the very start, having very little or no audience at all. You could even say that that actually is pretty scary thought for any teenager, having no confirmation or acceptance from anyone else out there.
...but I still love you Twitter. mwah.

Ana · 4 months ago

Teens Don't Tweet the same way people don't breath. Impossible! I tweet almost obsessively.

Electrosaur · 4 months ago

The problem isn't the interest teens have to go on Twitter - it's how long the idea Twitter captivates them to keep using it often. Too many times to mention that I know young people the same age as me try out twitter for a few days, and never come back. Many have the idea that Twitter is a social networking site like Facebook, but the fact is that it's not; Twitter has it's job in the mass media of the internet and Facebook has it's part.
I kept up Twitter because it boosted interest in my dA (deviantART) gallery, and my video blog on YouTube, and also because I thought it was an amazing idea and a great way to 'stay in touch' with the world, I guess you could say. Many teenagers wouldn't have the same need to do this, and instead of broadcasting into pure nothingless (with usually, pure nothingless) they can easily take comfort into letting other people what their doing through sites such as Facebook, Bebo etc., and also their audience there is compiled of usually friends and relatives that they know. Timelines/status messages on such sites doesn't feel as distant on Twitter usually, as when you update people on what you're doing on such sites, at least someone you know will read it and perhaps even comment. On Twitter, it is, at the end of the day, blatant self-confirmation when you start from the very start, having very little or no audience at all. You could even say that that actually is pretty scary thought for any teenager, having no confirmation or acceptance from anyone else out there.
...but I still love you Twitter. mwah.

Electrosaur · 4 months ago

The problem isn't the interest teens have to go on Twitter - it's how long the idea Twitter captivates them to keep using it often. Too many times to mention that I know young people the same age as me try out twitter for a few days, and never come back. Many have the idea that Twitter is a social networking site like Facebook, but the fact is that it's not; Twitter has it's job in the mass media of the internet and Facebook has it's part.
I kept up Twitter because it boosted interest in my dA (deviantART) gallery, and my video blog on YouTube, and also because I thought it was an amazing idea and a great way to 'stay in touch' with the world, I guess you could say. Many teenagers wouldn't have the same need to do this, and instead of broadcasting into pure nothingless (with usually, pure nothingless) they can easily take comfort into letting other people what their doing through sites such as Facebook, Bebo etc., and also their audience there is compiled of usually friends and relatives that they know. Timelines/status messages on such sites doesn't feel as distant on Twitter usually, as when you update people on what you're doing on such sites, at least someone you know will read it and perhaps even comment. On Twitter, it is, at the end of the day, blatant self-confirmation when you start from the very start, having very little or no audience at all. You could even say that that actually is pretty scary thought for any teenager, having no confirmation or acceptance from anyone else out there.
...but I still love you Twitter. mwah.

Laura · 4 months ago

I'm 15 and though most of my friends have Twitter accounts (me included), they rarely use them. Frankly, I think Twitter is boring. People my age prefer sites such as Bebo and Facebook where they have their own profile to customize. Though you do have a profile on Twitter compare it to a Bebo profile and you'll see what I mean. Here in Ireland Bebo is huge. I only know a small number of people my age who have it. It is a very attractive website for teens.
Also, when you're a teen you are not that interested in what other people are doing, so why would you want to know what they are up to every ten minutes? I'm not at all surprised by this stat.

Nikki · 4 months ago

I don't see a lot of adults mostly Teens so I think this idea is crud!

Robert M. Barga · 4 months ago

Um, 2-24 should have less people, what 2 year old tweets? teens don't tweet my ass

Adam Mutum · 4 months ago

Because of this post, I suspect the number of teens signing up for Twitter has suddenly jumped about 100%.

Jeff Korhan · 4 months ago

To me this seems painfully obvious. My kids are teens and they text - not Tweet. Since Twitter is an idea that came from SMS, why would teens need to switch platforms when they already have one that is working for them.

The second reason is their world is smaller. They have their circle of friends within their texting universe.

Look out though - when these teens enter the workforce, I expect their texting skills will only serve to reinforce the use of this type of network.

Sam G. Daniel · 4 months ago

Based on one report that I forgot the name to, teens don't tweet because it uses up precious minutes or text messages from their plan. They rather spend their money texting their friends instead of tweeting.

Jeff Korhan · 4 months ago

To me this seems painfully obvious. My kids are teens and they text - not Tweet. Since Twitter is an idea that came from SMS, why would teens need to switch platforms when they already have one that is working for them.

The second reason is their world is smaller. They have their circle of friends within their texting universe.

Look out though - when these teens enter the workforce, I expect their texting skills will only serve to reinforce the use of this type of network.

Jeff Korhan · 4 months ago

To me this seems painfully obvious. My kids are teens and they text - not Tweet. Since Twitter is an idea that came from SMS, why would teens need to switch platforms when they already have one that is working for them.

The second reason is their world is smaller. They have their circle of friends within their texting universe.

Look out though - when these teens enter the workforce, I expect their texting skills will only serve to reinforce the use of this type of network.

Andrew · 4 months ago

We've seen the same thing (Teens Don't Tweet) for a while now, though the tide is turning slowly.

One Year Ago --> http://www.quibblo.com/quiz/1pVdK5N/Are-you-a-m...

A Couple Of Months Ago --> http://www.quibblo.com/quiz/9WWIbL0/Do-you-Twitter

We've seen it go from 91% non-usage, to 57% non-usage. And for what it is worth, our site (Quibblo.com) is made up entirely of teens.

devin · 4 months ago

Your right. Teens don't tweet. And this is why: http://whowhatwherewheny.wordpress.com/2009/07/...

Puri Dewayani · 4 months ago

my classmates tweet, my teens friends from another countries tweet, so what are we? Mercury teens that tweet?!

Evan · 4 months ago

I'm 20 and I tweet, and a lot of my friends who are considering switching to twitter ask me what it is like. I tell them it's like a facebook status update to which they reply, oh well then I'll just stick to facebook. I think this is because facebook still is supreme in terms of features and profile information and interactiveness, that it just makes it harder for twitter to be as impressive or as exciting to them.

g · 4 months ago

The more interesting question for me would be, What percentage of ACTIVE Twitter users are teens?

Additionally - I wonder if there is any "group" usage, i.e. some teens tweeting back and forth en masse (since it's rare they spend their freetime alone by choice).

Parental supervision/censorship of kids on social media/interet is still quite prevalent, and I would imagine this still has an impact. Still - kids who are savvier tend to find access, and I wonder if these are the trendsetters that are more influential in their group in terms of psychographics.

Any insights from that perspective?

Barbee · 4 months ago

Just for the record....I'm 59 (!) and tweet....a lot.

jenniferjayy · 4 months ago

THIS IS HILARIOUS.
1. teenagers are 13-19 year olds. not 2-24 year olds.
2. how many 2 year olds can tweet? maybe 10 year olds at the youngest! but you have to be 13 to be on twitter! right? so why on earth is that age band 2-24 when only 13+'s can tweet? LOL FAIL.
3. the age groups are odd sizes! 2-24 (well, 13-24, really) then 25-54! OF COURSE theres going to be more in an age group which is bigger!

haha, nice work whoever made those stats.

danineteen · 4 months ago

I don't think teens are Twitter-shy at all. They only counted people who "visit Twitter.com (not desktop and mobile clients)," and the only desktop client mentioned was Tweetdeck. There are many more desktop clients that I'm sure are used by a lot more under 25-ers, and the fact that mobile clients weren't even included has already made the results invalid, in my opinion. I reckon Twitter users under 25 use mobile clients a lot more than they do desktop clients OR Twitter on the web. Users under 25 are more likely to tweet on the go, rather than have to sit at a computer and do that. The younger generation are more tech-savvy - they'd rather use their phones to do what our parents only know how to do on the computer.

Kent · 4 months ago

This is the challenge when basing conclusions on historical data. This data tells us that at this point in time, fewer teens are using Twitter. It is risky to then conclude "therefore teens will not ever use Twitter." Perhaps that may be true. It could be that Twitter doesn't offer value over other means of teen socialization, so one wouldn't expect them to tweet. Or, perhaps it is a function of the time and access to socialization tools - many of us (older than 25) can't access Facebook from work or know that our web use is monitored - so a quick tweet on the mobile phone allows some modicum of socializing without risking a decline in productivity. If true, you'll see teens begin to use Twitter as they enter the work force.

The essential functionality of Twitter is undeniable (not to be confused with the content). That is, in my humble opinion, what will enable Twitter to continue to grow and become one of several means by which we communicate and share.

danineteen · 4 months ago

I don't think teens are Twitter-shy at all. They only counted people who "visit Twitter.com (not desktop and mobile clients)," and the only desktop client mentioned was Tweetdeck. There are many more desktop clients that I'm sure are used by a lot more under 25-ers, and the fact that mobile clients weren't even included has already made the results invalid, in my opinion. I reckon Twitter users under 25 use mobile clients a lot more than they do desktop clients OR Twitter on the web. Users under 25 are more likely to tweet on the go, rather than have to sit at a computer and do that. The younger generation are more tech-savvy - they'd rather use their phones to do what our parents only know how to do on the computer.

Kent · 4 months ago

This is the challenge when basing conclusions on historical data. This data tells us that at this point in time, fewer teens are using Twitter. It is risky to then conclude "therefore teens will not ever use Twitter." Perhaps that may be true. It could be that Twitter doesn't offer value over other means of teen socialization, so one wouldn't expect them to tweet. Or, perhaps it is a function of the time and access to socialization tools - many of us (older than 25) can't access Facebook from work or know that our web use is monitored - so a quick tweet on the mobile phone allows some modicum of socializing without risking a decline in productivity. If true, you'll see teens begin to use Twitter as they enter the work force.

The essential functionality of Twitter is undeniable (not to be confused with the content). That is, in my humble opinion, what will enable Twitter to continue to grow and become one of several means by which we communicate and share.

Zachary Agnew · 4 months ago

Alright, here's why most of us teens don't tweet. We ALL use Myspace and Facebook throughout high school. Most of us switch to just Facebook after that. Facebook pretty much just gives us more things to do, more options, more ways to communicate, and provides a way to kill a decent bit of time when we're bored. Twitter offers you one service that is available through Facebook already... Status updates = Tweets... they work exactly the same way. But here's the thing, Tweets kind of seem limited to us being that you can only type in 140 characters at a time. The status update allows us to type whatever, however. Facebook lets us create a profile full of applications, photos, comments, games, so on and so forth, and all of our friends can see what we're up to at any time through the news feed. There's just more to it, and it just gives more variety to communication. As far as marketing your business, I think Facebook definitely takes the cake because there are so many things you can display at once to give viewers a complete understanding of your company. As opposed to just answering one simple question every time in as little typing as you can make it... "What are you up to?" It seems a bit lazy to me for social marketing on the web. Bottom line, not as many teens tweet because we know how to work the web better, and we know how to use every single feature Facebook has to offer. Tweeting is just flat out boring. On a regular basis, I don't have the time or care enough to post a small quote about my day, nor can I ever remember to.

Bill · 4 months ago

Interesting. Twitter users are still only a very small part of internet users so I wouldn't doubt that this will change. I think twitter is more useful as a tool for a publishing platform - in conjunction with a regular website than as a means of keeping in touch with friends.

Rebecca Woodhead · 4 months ago

Hmm - wonder if this helped me to win Ms Twitter UK? One of my followers mentioned twitter was 'a medium for older people', which led me to imagine a Victorian woman at a shaking seance table, holding hands with pensioners. Interesting stats. Anyone got any ideas why that is the case?

Rebecca
Word Nerd
Ms Twitter UK.
@rebeccawoodhead

Danish · 4 months ago

Well, the 140 character limit of Twitter suits pro's and older people more rather than teenagers, in order to make your tweet meaningful enough you need a certain level maturity and knowledge which can even be found in teens but in specific instances only. Younger people would rather deal with graphic, video, fancy fonts and long messages :D

Ralf · 4 months ago

mike (unregistered) wrote, in response to Diana (unregistered):

Twitter is for narcissistic geeks/losers who think people are actually interested in their mundane activities and lives. Nobody really gives a ---- how you feel right this instant or that you just had a bagel.

---------------------------------

Why have you deleted his post, when in fact he's hit the nail right on the head! Mike I applaud you!!!

It seems like nobody who can see through the Twitter myth is allowed to post their opinion. I too had a comment removed recently and I was saying almost exactly the same thing.

The best is that Mike's comment is not only true, but backed up by the hundreds of kiddies posting here to tell us they use Twitter... Kids, you paid attention in stats lessons didn't you? 16% of "lots and lots and lots (of internet users)" is approximately "quite a lot (of internet users)". To put it another way, if you are under 25, the probability that you use Twitter, is roughly double the probability of catching that gutshot straight on the river (itself, a probability held hight by many teenage poker fish).

In other words: only narcissistic geeks/losers who think people are actually interested in their mundane activities and lives, would post here to say "I use Twitter", despite the relatively high probability!!!

mrsblankenship · 4 months ago

I'd say it's because 16-24 year olds don't have a deep appreciation for language, namely wit, for which Twitter is the perfect platform.

Kenneth · 4 months ago

I think this is an obvious reason. The status service that twitter 'is' has been enabled in alot of other social networking sites. The most obvious one: Facebook. Teens like the total user experience and use one site where everything is available. Whereas Twitter is an uncluttered form of status service which is appealing to adults because it is not hard to learn.

Teens wants extendable services and renewing services. Twitter is static in that matter and is not apealing to teens but it sure is for adults.

Elad Kehat · 4 months ago

That's actually a good sign for twitter imo - that they're being used by a more mature audience. In terms of monetization, that's the audience that's worth the most.

Youtuber · 4 months ago

But then, not everyone posts their REAL age on twitter. Some teens could have made then selves over 25 making it seem like Teens Don't Tweet.

Brandon · 4 months ago

It's difficult to encourage teens to register and try Twitter, let alone continue to actively use the site. Even describing Twitter to teens is difficult and it can boil down to this:

- "MySpace and Facebook already offer Status Updates along with their other features, so why bother?"
- "Why join if I would be the only one of my friends that uses it?"

I'm not even sure if I have 5 teenage friends that use Twitter actively. I have encouraged a few to join, but they either don't understand the service or care enough to try.

Courtney · 4 months ago

So what are the stats for those of us who lied about our age on the register form?

gertrud · 4 months ago

My children from 19 up to 33 years old laugh about twitter as being idiot blabla, doing this, doing that and stupid articles. There is no benefit to see for them to use Twitter. "Why are you doing this mom?" the most heard question sinds I tweet.

Jill Bateman · 4 months ago

This isn't a surprising survey result, but what I find most interesting about Twitter is not finding out what you had for breakfast, it is getting a snap shot of what everyone is thinking about. Twitter is a giant public conversation and it is fascinating! I think teens *will* start finding a way to use Twitter - after all the trend is moving upward.

Matt Brosseau · 4 months ago

I love that this is a Twitter trending topic and I love even more that teens are taking offense to this. It has nothing to do with your personal desire to tweet teens, it is just a listing of stat analysis that clearly states you happen to tweet less than others. It's not an argument, and it doesn't require the flurry of "Teens Don't Tweet - Then what am I doing? #TeensDOTweet " tweets that have plagued the web.

Kieran · 4 months ago

Well I've been tweeting since I was 17... and so have 5 of my mates

Bri · 4 months ago

Just because the title says Teens Don't Tweet doesn't mean that they are saying that NO teens have Twitter. They are saying that on average the age group using Twitter is older. Just because you and your 20 friends use Twitter and tweet 20 times a day does not mean that it makes up for the other teens who don't use Twitter. The reality is there are always going to be exceptions to the rule -which many of us are but that still doesn't mean that the findings from the data is incorrect.

Dynamyk · 4 months ago

If i'm understanding the article correctly, this is not including numbers from tweets that are coming from iPhones and Blackberrys where most of the people in the teen age demo that I know tweet from (myself included) This would change the data big time.

Danny · 4 months ago

Teens use Facebook. Its a little more complex but gives teens more options and privacy. The only thing twitter allows is short messages, and everybody who is following you can see what you say no matter who its too. Facebook allows you to be a little more private and do more. The older generation who aren't as technology savvy like the simple twitter though.

mrsblankenship · 4 months ago

I'd say it's because 16-24 year olds don't have a deep appreciation for language, namely wit, for which Twitter is the perfect platform.

Danny · 4 months ago

Teens use Facebook. Its a little more complex but gives teens more options and privacy. The only thing twitter allows is short messages, and everybody who is following you can see what you say no matter who its too. Facebook allows you to be a little more private and do more. The older generation who aren't as technology savvy like the simple twitter though.

Debbie Horovitch · 4 months ago

I would like to see this chart with columns comparing facebook demographic distribution, as well as the population.

This would tell a much more interesting story and highlight that the people on Twitter in every demographic group, are early-adopters and thought-leaders who are well-informed, helpful and play well with others. Perhaps Nielsen could look at Twitter from the perspective of consumer behavior groupings, instead of demographic groups.

Danny · 4 months ago

Teens use Facebook. Its a little more complex but gives teens more options and privacy. The only thing twitter allows is short messages, and everybody who is following you can see what you say no matter who its too. Facebook allows you to be a little more private and do more. The older generation who aren't as technology savvy like the simple twitter though.

JAVAJ9 · 4 months ago

Great point! In fact, you have to be over 13 to use Twitter but not to use the Internet ... That would really skew the stats for this report.

gianna113 · 4 months ago

I only fourteen and i've been on twitter for about 4 and a half months now!

stargatelvr, or Ky · 4 months ago

I personally have no idea what this is talking about. I've been tweets for over a year (Yes I am a teenager) and I know a boatload of Teenage Twitterers. I also know a lot of NOT Teenage Twitters, so it isn't like I just follow fellow teens.

rainin9 · 4 months ago

Because Facebook is cooler, and being a teen myself I'm only on Twitter to follow my favourite celebrities. And also because the people whom I admire use Twitter more often instead of Facebook. And I agree with those who talked about control of privacy. In Twitter any one can follow anyone until you block them, and I don't know.. There's a difference in that sense, compared to FB.

Rebecca Woodhead · 4 months ago

'Twitter is for narcissistic losers who think people are actually interested in their mundane activities and lives' was just tweeted to me by someone who, by their logic, was 'a narcissistic....' :)

Anyone who puts their thoughts into public words, whether on screen or not, is being narcissistic in that they are sufficiently convinced of the interesting nature of their thoughts to think others will find them interesting. The reverse is also true. Sometimes, to start a conversation, you have to make the first move and state your opinion. The result can be that you learn something by listening to or reading the opinions of others.

I think Twitter is most interesting when it is about sharing ideas. If you follow people you find interesting then your experience of twitter will be interesting.

I actually find the 'teen' statistic surprising. I'm curious to know why that is the case, if this is an accurate stat. If you have any views you'd like to share about it (i.e. don't just swear and run away) then feel free to tweet me.

Rebecca
@rebeccawoodhead

Ralf · 4 months ago

Rebecca, with the greatest respect, I think that's the point! YOU are not interested to hear that opinion of Twitter over Twitter any more than I want to hear what half the world "are doing right now". And if you argue that I must be missing the point because it's evolved from that eg. for posting links to interesting web pages, well I don't see the advantage over a combination of RSS (for broadcast) and IM (for personal). Apparently neither do teenagers, which doesn't suprise me in the slightest.
http://spare-a-talent.blogspot.com

Neil K · 4 months ago

I think a key reason for Twitter's greater popularity among adults is that they are more likely to learn about Twitter through experience. Teenagers will want a 30 second summary of all the reasons for tweeting and possibilities Twitter offers, and this is just not possible. Adults, on the other hand, are more likely to get a Twitter account, try it out for themselves, and then make a judgement.

Ralf · 4 months ago

Neil, I agree wholeheartedly. Because compared to technological developments like Social Networking or IM or file-sharing or whatever Teenagers have embraced with enthusiasm, it's impossible to give a 30 second summary of all the reasons for tweeting and possibilities Twitter offers. At least, not one that reveals opportunities that don't already exist in some other form already. Because Twitter is based on hype, nothing else.
http://spare-a-talent.blogspot.com

JC MALDONADO · 4 months ago

I definitely think that teens can be wary of inviting strangers into their feeds and their allowing them to see their tweets. With Facebook and Myspace I think that people are more inclined to connect with friends and classmates instead of total strangers as with Twitter. Twitter is social networking but with Facebook I think that it is more of a "social media group" where users stick to people they already know and do not feel comfortable reaching out to strangers.

Jennifer Underwood · 4 months ago

I'm 17 & have been using twitter for a couple of months now & have over 1000 followers.
I personally think teens are twitter shy mainly because you can do more things on facebook & myspace. I think they're more personal websites to communicate to people you know.
I also think that when a teenager creates a twitter account they think they have really interesting things to say & think loadsa people are gonna automatically follow them, but it doesn't really work like that unless you're Britney Spears or work on Eastenders.
Plus sometimes when people start a twitter account you can feel a bit lost & so then the teenager most probs cbb to sit & work out how to use it & really get into it.

Jus saying ^^

Joash · 4 months ago

i am 20 and i tweet. i think teens don't Tweet because they find it hard to use and also can't interact with people very easily like they do on Facebook. they find it geeky

mrzombie · 4 months ago

I'm 22 and tweet excessively. However I got into Twitter because of my job. I work at my job promoting our company by use of Social Networks. I have found that more adults use twitter in order to promote business, network, and connect with co-workers and potential employers. So I agree that it isn't really a kid/teen service. I mean, it would just be like text messaging for them in a way.

Joash · 4 months ago

i am 20 and i tweet. i think teens don't Tweet because they find it hard to use and also can't interact with people very easily like they do on Facebook. they find it geeky

Kathleen · 4 months ago

"While Nielsen is only measuring people who visit Twitter.com (not desktop and mobile clients), "
Nielsen is out of touch. Most of the ppl I know who Tweet do so from some mobile device. I don't know anyone who actually Tweets from twitter.com. May be next time Nielsen will do some research that's actually valid.

Bailey · 4 months ago

I tweet from Twitter.com 99.9% of the time. I work from my laptop and am using it for several hours every day; it doesn't make sense for me to pick up my phone or another mobile device in order to tweet when I can just open up another tab in my constantly open web browser. Your individual knowledge of the habits of some doesn't mean that Nielsen's research methods are invalid. Anecdotal results (what you described) are anecdotal -they're not research, nor are they definitive.

Bailey · 4 months ago

A lot of the commenting teens are missing the point here. You and your friends tweeting is irrelevant to the teen population at large, and the population of Twitter -of which teens make up 16%. That's the point of the article: that Twitter is used mostly by a slightly older demographic. Teens clearly tweet, but not as many as were expected. Just because a good number of teens and their friends tweet "obsessively" doesn't mean that every teenager out there does.

amithewaiting · 4 months ago

Well I'm 16 and I tweet ;)
I think most of my friends don't tweet becasue they'd rather use sites like Bebo which is rapidly going downhill anyway.Twitter is the future!It's good because it's simple and with just about every celebrity using it, it's more likely to stick around longer than Bebo. I don't know, I guess some people just don't have that much to say about themselves which is what Twitter is all about.

Michelle McGlone · 4 months ago

I totally agree :D

Laura Curry · 4 months ago

I tweet about 1-2 days/week (age 48), but my daughter, 18, who is somewhat of a teckkie, has an iphone and all the apps, and rolls her eyes when I tell her about Twitter. Her boyfriend (age 20) doesn't tweet, either. But, I will not be surprised if they do once they begin to think about other things in the world besides their own selves...Twitter is definitely not myopic...

AlohaArleen · 4 months ago

According to this article Nielsen did not measure people using desktop and mobile clients. Thus, the findings are completely wacked. When you don't get proper sampling, your measurements mean nothing! Teens, desktop and mobile clients go together!

Ezra Engle · 4 months ago

I think it is related to twitter's usefulness being tied to SMS in real time. Not everybody van afford unlimited texts and a qwerty keyboard and data plan. The teens I know have parents limiting their texts and/or phones making Twitter less useful. Some use twitter but tell me they can't click on any links or twitpics I send because they are not allowed to use data. Probably the same demographic as the average iPhone user. No parents I know are paying for a current iPhone with plan for a school aged teen without a job to pay for it themselves.

Chris Desouza · 4 months ago

.... Because Teens are not stupid. They need to be heard rightaway rather then speak to the clouds and hope to be heard.

linnyb · 4 months ago

old people use it because it is easy and they have no clue how to use facebook/myspace

Marc Mulhern · 4 months ago

I wonder if teens, obsessive as they are, tweet more often than others...

jmac · 4 months ago

I think the last couple sentences say it all... "While Nielsen is only measuring people who visit Twitter.com (not desktop and mobile clients), the analytics firm additionally claims that over 90% of TweetDeck (TweetDeck) users are over 25, making it unlikely that there are masses of uncounted young people on third-party Twitter apps."

This survey assumes that all twitter users are in front of a computer. Having many related teens in my life I can tell you that few of them have time to sit in front of a computer screen, and most spend all of their time on their mobile device. Without those stats I don't think you can make a fair assessment on that demographic.

Debora · 4 months ago

Once they count how many users use mobile and other clients and split up the age categories from that, /then/ I'll believe this. I have a good amount of friends that do have twitters and my school's publication staff has a twitter as well. =3

blog do celso ricardo · 4 months ago

this already was waited

www.celsoricardo.com

www.twitter.com/blogBCR

kevinnunez · 4 months ago

not very surprised... most teens don't see a point in twitter.

Delilah · 4 months ago

Tweeting, is not for the young.

They don't care about what your doing every second of everyday. They have things to do like get drunk, get high, and party.

Thats why they don't tweet.

Because, all the tweeting is mostly done over myspace, a more proficient method of saying what your doing. Without just looking at someone's page. I think they don't do it because, they feel like stalkers.

aethre · 4 months ago

It's probably because most people use twitter during the work day. Teenagers obviously can't do that.

Kumar · 4 months ago

I've tweeted over 10000 times. Teens do tweet, it's just that there are plenty of technogeeks in the 25 to 54 group now, a group that contains a lot more people than the teen demographic.

Mark · 4 months ago

This survey is seriously flawed. First off, if you compare the 7 years where a person is considered a "teenager" against the 29 years of the "25-54-year old" demographic, yeah, you're going to see a discrepancy. Add to this that the 2-24-year old demographic is a joke. I mean how many kids under age 6 have the means or the knowledge to do the social networking thing anyway? Also, pre-teens and younger teenagers may have the desire to tweet, but may not be allowed by their parents or by financial restrictions. And then, individuals in the early adulthood years may be too involved with partying or being broke to allow for such pursuits. People in the 25-54 demo are more likely to have their finances in order at least to the point where twittering is more feasible. Most of them don't still live with their parents. And many wish to share their thoughts and feelings rather then silly videos and shopped photos. I also think that the fact that these results were collected strictly from the Twitter front page would goof the results as well. I have a Twitter account and tweet frequently. But I rarely visit the Twitter home page. I typically use a browser-based app called TwitterFox or send messages via text from my phone. The only time I actually visit the website is to block someone who has leached on for no apparent reason. And the lion's share of users I know operate in a likewise fashion. So, do I dispute the assertion at most teens aren't twittering? No. Despite the fact that I was once a teen, I do not claim to understand the workings of the teenage mind. But I do believe that the numbers in the survey could have been presented in a more unbiased manner.

twuptwup · 4 months ago

twitter sucks:(

khristin · 4 months ago

im 16 and i had twitter for awhile and its really fun to me. i have like over 300 tweets so far and ive been a member for like a month. its really fun

twuptwup · 4 months ago

twitter sucks:(

cbjerrisgaard · 4 months ago

Odds are teens would post some random useless crap anyway. In fact if you look at the trending topics the ones who are like "I tweet! - Teens do so tweet!" have the most garbage dribble tweets. Stuff like "oh no" "LMAOLMAOLMAO" etc etc. What is that?

Jessica · 4 months ago

I'm 14 and I tweet ALL the time.
The evidence is right here in the comments, teens DO tweet.

Bailey · 4 months ago

Yes, teens do tweet. The point is that they don't make up the majority of the tweeting population, not that there aren't any teens using Twitter.

April Higney · 4 months ago

I definitely agree that the chart is quite off in the aspect of age ranges. I have a brilliant little girl but if she could read already I wouldn't let her on Twitter, it would be MyNoggin or PBSKids.org or something, secondly there are those that could quite possibly be on Twitter unaccounted for under alias IDs and assumed age ranges. Then there are those who don't want to be so known who do the same thing with alias identities and age ranges who could be in their 30s or 40s. Then on another note, I find myself in a position looking for weblinks, and some basis for a follow, to decipher through what is what, who is who. I don't think the chart is really all that accurate considering the reality of many surrounding factors.

Haley C · 4 months ago

A more hilarious change of events if that teens are misinterpreting what this article says - or not even reading it- and tweeting "Imma teen an i tweet lol im smart whoever started that didnt think of me lol"

pmgforever · 4 months ago

I think it is less interesting for those who just share photo and play Mafia on Facebook

Tren · 4 months ago

This is the most flawed graph I've ever seen. ._.; The only people I know on twitter are either a teen or someone in their twenties, but the oldest is 22.

beepbeepsean · 4 months ago

i suspect the majority of teenagers tweet via txt.

A Parent · 4 months ago

Do teens want anyone to know what they're doing?

Katherine C. James · 4 months ago

This study seems too flawed to matter. The midlife users are lumped together and, most sugnificantly, lots of teen users would be on a mobile client. Anecdotally, I notice that most of my friends under 25 IM and use Facebook, bit I don't think this poll tells us much. Twitter works for me as a personal and political tool for my Indian tribe, for my environmental causes, for breaking news, to stay in touch with my few friends on it who are all younger than me. I am a 56-year old woman who Twitters daily and enjoys those I follow immensely. My follows are news, environment, poltical, and tribal related. Tire of demographic obsession with age. Prefer American Indian ways of looking at age that are less us vs. Them.

alezzzorz · 4 months ago

i'm 16 and most of my friends don't understand twitter and don't really get why people use it.
i guess i don't really get the whole purpose, but i've been using it doe awhile now. and i enjoy it.

Caitlin · 4 months ago

I believe that if you were to break down the study to business and personal is why those numbers look so strange. Your younger age bracket uses twitter as a personal platform but the numbers get thrown off because every business owns a twitter and most business owners are in that middle age bracket. You old fogies are taking over my social platform and turning it into your advertising stream. Personally, let the younger group have it, at least then its more than streaming spam.

Caitlin · 4 months ago

I believe that if you were to break down the study to business and personal is why those numbers look so strange. Your younger age bracket uses twitter as a personal platform but the numbers get thrown off because every business owns a twitter and most business owners are in that middle age bracket. You old fogies are taking over my social platform and turning it into your advertising stream. Personally, let the younger group have it, at least then its more than streaming spam.

Zachary Collins · 4 months ago

I tried to tell my friends to start tweetin', but they seem to not understand it, except for a few. Facebook is more of their Twitter, especially since there are a lot of things they can do.

However, I love to tweet. I use it more than Facebook most of the time.

-Zachary Collins
http://www.yazzem.com

P.S. Not for me to gain any fame, but you should write a post featuring some teen tweople.

Caroline · 4 months ago

What are those poor stats ??

Just look at how users were categorized : 2-24, 25-54 and 55+. I believe this means that most of all internet users actually fit in the seconth category.
24 - 2 = 22 years of age range
54 - 25 = 29 years of age range
Already, you are comparing age ranges that can't be compared, because they are not the same size. Your statistics are already biased.

Then, if you consider age 2-22, it is not really 2-22, because I am not quite sure that a lot of 2 years old babies use internet and can actually answer to any web-related question. Or any question whatsoever. This mean, really, the categories could have been : 12-24 (age range of 12), 25-54 (age range of 29) and 55 +.

The biased categories would then have obviously looked alot more irrelevant.

Category 2 (age 25-54) does represent much more than 33% of internet users, which means the huge bar with a big 64% doesn't mean that Twitter is "hip" for adults and professional and almost useless for teens.. Just that twitter users might actually be much like any internet user, overall.

This chart says what the big title wants it to say. That's it.

Though, I would be interested in a serious inquiry, that might as well or not come with a conclusion that teens seem to be less enthousiastics about Twitter than older people.
As for this report, I consider it not very good.

legsofwoodwaves · 4 months ago

I know for a Fact that Teens prefer Facebook as twitter can be restless. Some people follow about 200 + people and that in itself is 300 tweets per day. what person has the time to read through all those tweets but on facebook you can choose the amount of updates you receive from any person in your friend list. I am a teenager and i found out about Twitter through an Adult and have not used it twice as much as i have facebook. so i believe that this statement 'teens don't tweet' is near enough true

Tom · 4 months ago

So are these stats meaningful at all in terms of Twitter, or do they just reflect use of social networking in general? Or internet usage in general? Facebook users peak in the 30s I think right?

Also why not 2-18, 19-25, 25-55, 55+ ? This more accurately reflects social breakdowns for users (high school, college, post-college workforce, etc) there has been speculation that FB and other socnet usage peaks for 30somethings because they are tied to computers at work all day.

Caroline · 4 months ago

I believe they are not meaningful in the least in terms of Twitter. Your age ranges are much better, though for better categories, it should have considered the age of all repondants and divided them into age ranges that makes all categories even. It would have then be relevant for Twitter.

Mark · 4 months ago

I understand where you're going with the age brackets. But I think going that route wouldn't fix the inherent bias because we're comparing usage to user's age and not usage to a user's station in life/maturity/etc. And, in your breakdown of the age brackets, you're comparing a 16-year span (which happens to be the target demographic of the study) against 2 (possibly 3) 30-year spans. I have to think that the results would parallel the original survey's findings.

I think the age brackets need to be broken down even further. First off, leave out children under 10. Are they really relevant to the study? I'm thinking 5 year spans would be better. 10-14, 15-19, 20-24, 25-29, 30-34, 35-39, etc, etc. AND, find a way to open up the survey to include users who use their phones or other means for posting their tweets. Sure, this type of study would be more labor intensive, but it would yield better results, in my humble opinion.

But for all I know, the results would likely be the same. But at least the study would be more scientifically sound. It seems as though due diligence is something that is so very lacking nowadays.

Alaina · 4 months ago

I'm 13 and I tweet! Also, my 9 year old cousin tweets too!
Twitter is fun, but none of my friends have a twitter. Only my family does.
All of my aunts and uncles and cousins use twitter for little updates, so we don't have to call everyone about it. We can just tweet it! It's a lot easier. I love twitter! It's my addiction.

Alaina · 4 months ago

I'm 13 and I tweet! Also, my 9 year old cousin tweets too!
Twitter is fun, but none of my friends have a twitter. Only my family does.
All of my aunts and uncles and cousins use twitter for little updates, so we don't have to call everyone about it. We can just tweet it! It's a lot easier. I love twitter! It's my addiction.

Tony · 4 months ago

Not true, I would Say Half of the teens lie about there age, Im a teen, I lied, Because in Most websites TOS you have to be 18 for some reason, And some websites have restrictions for teens like youtube does.

Eric K · 4 months ago

Including kids between 2-12 is pointless. If this was segmented more equally, the data wouldn't look quite as extreme.

DK · 4 months ago

Great to see some stats backing up our take on the reasons behind why teens aren't on twitter from a few months back : http://mediasnackers.com/2009/03/twitter-and-te...

DK
MediaSnackers Founding Director
mediasnackers.com

Lindsay · 4 months ago

there are a lot of teens and young people that tweet this study is wrong

Cathy Harrison · 4 months ago

Dude, lower incidence does not equal 'Don't'. Dislike these tweets that mislead readers about the content. It's like the widely tweeted 'Microsoft doesn't do market research' -- yeah, right. I still think you're awesome though.....maybe you were looking to maximize RTs.

Joshua · 4 months ago

I'm 20 and an avid Twitter user. Not a lot of my friends use it, but they're growing by the week.

Milan Dobrota · 4 months ago

They don't like reading. If the tweets were pictures (preferably drunk ones) they would be the only ones to tweet :D

Toshi Jones · 4 months ago

We've asked teens in anecdotal surveys and they seem to feel like Twitter isn't robust enough. Compared to other social media outlets like Myspace and Facebook, Twitter doesn't come with cool easy to use tools. We also hear that the slight learning curve for creating conversation threads is discouraging for new teen users.

thinktank research · 4 months ago

This is a good case of how interpreting data can give you disparate findings.

Nielsen is only looking at website visitation and tweetdeck data, both of which would overindex for older visitors, because younger people are more likely to use their mobile handsets and/or not use secondary applications.

We recently fielded some research for TWTRCON-SF that shows that those 13-17 are utilizing Twitter at the same rates of those 18-34. (In the U.S., there's also less teens than those 18-34, which is why teens or those 13-17 always tend to comprise a smaller percentage of users.)

You can find more at thinktank8.com/research

Andrew · 4 months ago

One of the main points of Twitter is to stay connected with people who you are not getting face-time with. How many teens have a "network" of any kind outside of their friends that they see at school everyday?


Doesn't seem that strange to me...70% of the traffic to our YouTube channel is over 34

YoMAMA · 4 months ago

IM A PRE-TEEN AND I TWEET!!! AND I PLAN ON ALWAYS USING TWITTER, EVEN WHEN IM A TEEN!!! :P

Monik Pamecha · 4 months ago

I am 13 and i love to tweet. I know over 50+ people at the age of 14-19 who tweet freaks.

Imari · 4 months ago

teens don't tweet? yeah right.. they're the ones that make up words to fit in 140 characters!

Rita · 4 months ago

I'm 19, and I use Twitter. I think that Twitter is too mature for most teens so they don't understand it and get bored with it. A lot of teens have short attention spans so that's why they probably use sites like MySpace and Facebook over Twitter, because they're all flash.

Rita · 4 months ago

I'm 19, and I use Twitter. I think that Twitter is too mature for most teens so they don't understand it and get bored with it. A lot of teens have short attention spans so that's why they probably use sites like MySpace and Facebook over Twitter, because they're all flash.

Rita · 4 months ago

I'm 19, and I use Twitter. I think that Twitter is too mature for most teens so they don't understand it and get bored with it. A lot of teens have short attention spans so that's why they probably use sites like MySpace and Facebook over Twitter, because they're all flash.

Rita · 4 months ago

I'm 19, and I use Twitter. I think that Twitter is too mature for most teens so they don't understand it and get bored with it. A lot of teens have short attention spans so that's why they probably use sites like MySpace and Facebook over Twitter, because they're all flash.

@_moonchild · 4 months ago

I'm 19, and I use Twitter. I think that Twitter is too mature for most teens so they don't understand it and get bored with it. A lot of teens have short attention spans so that's why they probably use sites like MySpace and Facebook over Twitter, because they're all flash.

iTbay · 4 months ago

I use Twitter for knowledge and education and my opinion borders such analysis:

Teens do not have judgment yet and cannot form an opinion. Not all teens R creating equally as some R great twitters and an exception to the rule or stat. Im 26 and just nudge this stats - ppl call me weird for using Twitter - well when u come from a city that has a population density of 60% on Facebook and with an economy in the dirt, I guess in that reality, I am weird. ~ I guess time will tell.

It interesting how Facebook vs Twitter R really different. See with Facebook, the majority of its ealry adopters were 18-25 whereas Twitter is different - Funny the way it is how many ppl still say Twitter? - isnt that just another Facebook. - I think ppl with these opinons fall into the teens dont get it category even if they R over 25.

I remember reading a TIME article about how the new 18 was 25. No offense to 18 yr olds, but individuals these days dont care about the future how 18 yr olds did 40 yrs ago - if they did, they would be on Twitter right away!

Botton line, in my opinion, teens these days have no judegment which formulates into no ideas as there is a lot of competing resources, media, gadets tools extra - so they waste their time on Facebook ...proof? - look at Google Trends on the weekend for Facebook google searches and u will see spikes in trends.

Given that Twitter's old motto is "What ur doing?'", teens will just do that on Facebook, the time waster. Now that Twitter is changing their motto and site design, may chg teens perception.

Bottom LINE: 1 idea: Twitter has to be in the classroom for Teens to get it!

Quick Rambles....cannot use my disqus or twitter acct to comment :(

Rita · 4 months ago

I'm 19 years old, and I use Twitter. I think that Twitter is too mature for most teens to understand so they get bored with it. Most teens have a short attention span so that's why they probably use social networking sites like MySpace and Facebook over Twitter, because they have so many features to keep the occupied, and they're all flash where Twitter is more about substance.

Molly · 4 months ago

Yes, because 16% is, of course, synonymous with "not tweeting". What kind of retard made this assumption?

Lisa · 4 months ago

Thi sIs Bull Tbqh

Marie · 4 months ago

I'm 17 and I tweet a LOT. I also know tons of teens that tweet! Twitter is actually really good if you're a hardcore Harry Potter fan. I know most of you couldn't give a crap about Harry Potter, but I'm following (and vice-versa) a lot of fellow Harry Potter fans, the majority, though certainly not all, in the "young people" range. If you're part of the Harry Potter fandom and don't have Twitter...well, you miss out on a lot. It's a great way to keep up with news and the more prominent people in the Harry Potter fandom. Besides Harry Potter, I follow a few causes as well. Twitter doesn't have an exact use- the users control how Twitter functions in their lives. So the Harry Potter community has embraced Twitter, just like business and celebrities. For us, we DO use Twitter to keep in contact with friends, because often we meet awesome people who live nowhere near us. And for some reason we actually do care about the random musings/observations of other people.

I'd also like to add that I prefer Twitter MUCH MORE to websites like facebook and myspace, because they are really different. A lot of teens just like to look cool and have a billion friends on facebook/myspace and, put up those pictures that make them look cool/funny/exceptionally good-looking. I honestly don't give a crap about that kind of stuff. Sure, Twitter sounds weird at first, "What? You follow people? Isn't that like stalking?" But really it's a lot less intrusive than other social networking sites. I read about people thoughts, etc. in usually less than 140 characters, occasionally see quiz results and pictures. But that's it. And I can stop following anyone whenever the heck I want. So if someone turns out to be really annoying, I can just unfollow them and they very likely won't even notice.

And to be honest, Twitter is really the only way I find out about the news, except for a podcast that I listen to. So maybe it is the more tech-savvy/geeky teens using Twitter, but we ARE tweeting, whether it interests older people or not. Really, I don't care about companies/mildly famous people using Twitter to promote themselves, so it's mutual.

Georgie · 4 months ago

I'm 16....and I'm addicted to Twitter. Has anyone considered that it's an intelectual thing? Maybe mature teens tweet?

Megan Flinn · 4 months ago

i fully agree! its definitely a more intellectual thing! bravo for utilizing this site!

Megan Flinn · 4 months ago

i think it has a lot to do with WHY people join twitter. I love it because it connects all areas of my life into one location - education, newsmedia, religion, comedians and of course, friends! Teenagers are developmentally at a place where their core interest is each other and socialization. While there are exceptions to every case, most teens find sites like facebook and myspace sufficient to communicate with their friends. Other sources of information are just not as enticing to them yet :) i <3 twitter

Wayne Cole · 4 months ago

Unlike facebook, twitter is an open network for followers, including strangers. Teenagers feel unsafe about posting their content there, because who knows who will read it.
http://www.worldmag.com/articles/15739

PropelSpot · 4 months ago

Teens are much more interactive than adults, and have a lot more time to "stroll" through FB pictures to get updates on friends. We "adults" have less time to message and update, so it makes sense that those of us on the move use an abbreviated comm. tool.

Dave Wilcox · 4 months ago

Interesting numbers. Seems to me that perhaps Twitter is a kind of Facebook for grown-ups. I know, I know; FB is showing most of its growth from non-student users. But friends have told me that they like having a narrower network of friends to have truly informative exchanges. Those who want to be more verbose simply tweet links to blog posts. With organizational tools like TweetDeck, it is really easy to check in with various groups with a quick look. Less socialization; more communication.

G. Liu · 4 months ago

no way. I know so many teens that tweet. Besides, Twitter says you have to be over 13 to tweet.

nbertolo · 4 months ago

Leaves one thinking twice about the idea of 'digital natives' -vs- 'digital immigrants', doesn't it.

Blackberries · 4 months ago

B/C twits, older people who wade(d) in corporiums, use blackberries.

I saw a quote on tobacco I think might apply to this phenomenon.

Something like, "the great illusion of smoking tobacco is that you're doing something."
and I forget who that is by, and you're welcome.

Dustin Erhardt · 4 months ago

I'm in a touring band that has an audience of mostly 14-22 year olds. We use twitter to connect with fans and keep them informed, but it's clear that twitter AND facebook users are still completely dwarfed my myspace users, and from age 14 to 17 it seems to be almost 100% myspace. However, I have noticed a rising trend with twitter, much like the trend that recently tipped facebook over myspace in active users. I have a feeling it will continue to grow among younger folk as new features arise and hype grows.

Pamela Rosenthal · 4 months ago

I don't think teens are twitter "shy" necessarily. The age range of 2 to 24 was not constructed properly as some have pointed out. And, as such it's hard to get a handle on what is really going on with teens specifically. I suspect a good chunk of the youth market users are actually 18 to 24 year olds. The sensational headline seems designed to benefit directly from the publicity surrounding the report out of Morgan Stanley by their 15 year old intern.

There are a lot of factors involved in lower adoption that many of the readers have already pointed out -- kids aren't at their computers all day, they are not selling anything etc.

However, based on my estimates using the information provided in the chart, it appears that the youth market is actually adopting Twitter at an accelerated pace. They have gone from comprising about 6% of the Twitter users in January to 16% in June as shown by Nielsen. So, from where I stand, the youth market is actually hot in terms of Twitter adoption rates. I've posted the analysis on my blog for anyone who wants to look at the calculations.

Offir Estay Hilton · 4 months ago

I'm 19 and most of my friends tweet from Twitterberry or their mobile phones and you didn't consider those.....

Lauren · 4 months ago

I'm 18 and no one I know Twitters. Seriously: NO ONE. You can do the exact same things as Twitter on Facebook and much much more, so I guess there's no point. Actually, most of the people I've talked to think Twitter is pointless and boring.

And if you watch shows like Conan O'brien, whenever Twitter is mentioned the whole audience boos. That must tell you something! I'm sure the reason why there is more comments on here disagreeing with the study is because this article was posted somewhere on Twitter, so everyone who uses Twitter came here to gawk. The rest of the young people haven't seen this, or just don't care.

John Owen · 4 months ago

Hey! I tweet, and i'm 16 so there!

Business Talk · 4 months ago

Thats interesting. However is a 14 year old using twitter to grow his pipeline: http://businessblogs.co.nz/2009/08/04/jayson-ki...

Maybe they should have asked him for comment...

Belinda · 4 months ago

Are you serious? You put 2-24 in one bracket, when realistically only about 10 years of that age bracket have regular computer access (perhaps less), and in the other bracket, 25-54, where all 30 years have regular and unrestricted computer access, probably own their own computer, have access at work, etc... and then wonder why the one with 30 years is 3 or 4 times higher than the one with 10 years... wow.

J3essie · 4 months ago

It's because most teens aren't going to put their actual age down. Most say that they are older.

Liam · 4 months ago

Because we know it's all new-age bullshit for "young professionals" and 40-something stay at home moms claiming they're "social media experts". Talk to any young person, they're more likely to tell you they hate Twitter than tell you they've never heard of it.

Can't wait until it dies out.

richardmin · 4 months ago

I actually find this to be good news. though I would assume (and some comments here seem to support) that those who DO tweet probably do so to unfathomable record levels -- blindfolded with one hand tied behind there back while they are sleeping (in class). heh

Trendsta · 4 months ago

I get so annoyed with reports like this. Neilsen's analytics are terrible when it comes to teen because they don't have consumers under the age of 18 responding. These responses are based on parents being surveyed. I would believe that co-Tweet and the like are not popular with teens because desktop applications are a bit passe when it comes to this generation.
It's not that teens aren't on Twitter. They've heard the buzz and they're definitely there, it's that they're passive observers on Twitter. They came for the celebrities, hooked up to their friends' accountants and then the interaction stagnated. In the teen world Twitter is more of a feature type item then a full fledged site. They'd rather be on Facebook and status message suit them fine.
This is primary, on the ground research. Trendsta engages with teens every day in their space and definitely see a full perspective of how they use various platforms, networks, etc. Stop with the teens aren't on Twitter. It's an inaccurate blanketing statement.

Ben | Self Help Gold · 4 months ago

That is surprising. I would not have guessed that. The 55+ group is larger than I expected too.

mcjq · 4 months ago

it's simple, young people have more interesting things to do and it is good that people spend less time in front of the computer

jane · 4 months ago

TWITTER IS VERY BORING. theyre more for following celebrities. for teens, there's FACEBOOk thats more "LOOK AT ME".

Nige · 4 months ago

That is one of the worst misuses of stats that I have ever seen. More than half of the 2-25 age group are under 12. I would imagine that almost all of the 16% come from the age range 14-25, so it is not possible to draw a 'teens don't tweet' conclusion from that.

Soccerbest12 · 4 months ago

If Teen's don't tweet then why do I tweet? I'm a teen and all my friends tweet everyday!!!! I find this offensive because all my friends have a twitter and they tweet everytime something new comes up everyday! So don't say teen's don't tweet because we do some lie about there age I wont hide that but again thats because of Facebook/Myspace need to be 19 or older to have a myspace/facebook! So again TEEN'S DO TWEET!

Mike · 4 months ago

Not sure if the statistics you're quoting here are comparable... it looks to me like just 16% of twitter users are in the younger demographic and 1/4 of all internet users are in that demographic. Without knowing what % of internet users are twitter users, I'm not sure you can make a reasonable link between the two. Either way, it doesn't sound like you're getting at the idea of what % of teens use twitter, as the headline seems to advertise...

Viral · 4 months ago

I'm not sure why this is surprising to anyone. Twitter is BARELY a "social network". It's really mainly people posting links to stories they found elsewhere on the web, then copying other peoples posts of the same. It's not a tool to connect friends and keep each other updated on the going-on of your daily life, schedule and plans. At least it's not very good at that.

With notable exceptions, the vast majority of teens care far less about news and current events than they do about their FRIENDS and what they are doing. That's what Facebook (and myspace) are designed to do... and do it SO much better than twitter. They are actual "social networks". Twitter is a web2.0 version of an RSS reader.

twittermama · 4 months ago

I'm really not surprised by the data supporting this.


Tiffany N
Owner, TwitterMamas.net

twittermama · 4 months ago

I'm really not surprised by the data supporting this.


Tiffany N
Owner, TwitterMamas.net

lilly · 4 months ago

with the lack of including mobile clients, i'd say teens are using that medium for twitter a lot more than they use desktop clients. teens, unlike many older adults who sit at a desk with a computer all day, are mobile, going between classes or sports or just chilling with friends. I wonder what the average age of a Twitterific user is or the like. As someone who is no longer a teenager, but still well under 25, and following more than 100 others who are under 25 (although i follow more from favorite TV stars, my hometown newspaper and local news channel, etc) I don't buy a 16% number. I'm only on a hard laptop maybe an hour or two a day for papers and the like, but nearly every college kid I know has a twitter. I don't think I've updated mine via twitter.com interface in months, as I use an iphone. Under 25s have snapped up smartphones (iphones, blackberries, storm & now the pre) and most of my friends have them, and that's a large part of twitter.
So yes, older people still use desktop interface to access twitter. No one will argue, but seriously, it's a mobile technology that young people use in a mobile setting. Teens use twitter, just not from their desktop computers.

danah boyd · 4 months ago

I decided to take a look at all of the teens tweeting in response to the "Teens Don't Tweet" thread that this post prompted. I thought you might enjoy what I found: http://www.zephoria.org/thoughts/archives/2009/...

Highlight: The most salient visceral reaction that I got when looking at the teens' Twitter streams was that teens on Twitter seemed to fit into three categories: 1) geeky teens, tech teens, fandom teens, machinema teens; 2) teens who are in love with the Jonas Brothers/Miley Cyrus, musicians, or another category of celebs; 3) multi-lingual foreign teens with friends/followers around the world who seemed to participate in lots of online communities.

Norton Lam · 4 months ago

I don't think they want to impact the world like us older tweeters: http://bit.ly/nWzBC

TeensAbout · 4 months ago

Well, it's because teens want a place for themselves. Until now there wasn't a twitter for teens. I found one yesterday called http://www.TeensAbout.com - calling itself twitter for teens.

Owen · 4 months ago

I hate the Mashable logo.... it's so.... it's so boring....

Nile Flores · 4 months ago

And this comes almost a month or so after my own article response about this matter. It is only a slice of the actual stats. Teens ARE tweeting and we all see it daily. A lot of them trying to get attention and flood the boards with defamatory topics and pointless and spammish trending topics.

I think these rating have always been a bit wonky.

Betsy Stone · 4 months ago

I turned the mirror on myself (and my teenage son) to answer this question, and blogged about it. Bottomline: Facebook is a really great product compared to Twitter for this audience.

http://philanthrophile.wordpress.com/2009/08/07...

craigm · 4 months ago

Since the dawn of the information age, technological paradigms have been replaced on drum beat as each new generation fundamentally rejects the modus operandi of their predecessors.

My generation are from the dot.com boom and crash era, and although many of us tweet and facebook, email is still our primary method of communication and ecommerce is still our primary focus of the ventures we launch on the internet.

Tipping (point) my hat to Malcom Gladwell at this stage, this is perfectly explainable just as there is nothing coincidental about the fact the CEO of Facebook and the CEO of this site (one of social networking's most ardent cheerleaders) were born just over a year apart.

They were both far too young to get involved in building dot.com's (or reporting on dot.coms). Had they been born 10(ish) years earlier then Zuckerberg would have founded Amazon and Cashmore would be the editor of Fast Company (or that crazy dot.com news site and RW mag that was swimming in, nevermind drinking, the kool aid).

Instead they came of age in a post-Cluetrain era, and have ridden the wave of web 2.0 like many others of their generation. Unlike my generation they read the manifesto (or consumed other media influenced by it) and truly "got" it because unlike me and my generation they no interest (financial or intellectual) in anything that had gone before, no status quo to protect.

And so they are the dominant generation of our times, which brings with it great wealth and great influence. However, it also brings with it a great certainty in the end of history. A belief that their model of things (i.e. commerce and society) is the last one that will ever be needed.

They are wrong. The drumbeat continues...

There is already a group of 13-15 year old kids who don't yet know each other, but who are starting to think so far beyond the likes of Facebook and Twitter that it will take this current generation every bit as long to comprehend whatever it is that these kids come up with, as it has taken my generation of dinosaurs to "get" social networking.

And Zuckerberg will wake up to find that, in whatever new paradigm emerges, he has become Bill Gates and Cashmore will discover he is now John Dvorak.

So to restate the title of this post: Teen's Don't Tweet... Duh, of course they f*cking don't grandpa...

Tabish · 4 months ago

Teens are more into Facebook obviously.

Shosh · 4 months ago

HAHAHA sorry, but this is total bullshit.
Just look at the trending topics right now... I honestly don't think people over 25 give a flying crap about the Jonas Brothers. Hell, I'm 18 and I'm too old for them

Roman · 4 months ago

No fancy images, no videos, no audio i.e. not attractive enough for younger audience on the web; it's boring, Twitter interface on the Web. Therefore, they use mobile devices to keep talking and tweeting about Hannah Montana and Jonas Boys.

anon · 4 months ago

Maybe the reason there aren't that many teen tweeters is because most realise how utterly lame twitter is.

jo star · 3 months ago

Not an activity you would think busy people with a life would have much time or use for.

Sam Brown · 3 months ago

Could I recommend http://dubitinsight.blogspot.com/ for some real youth research on Twitter (UK based)?

JustinBartz · 3 months ago

An age group of 2-24 year olds? Wow, I had no idea toddlers could Tweet! :D

mpguinan · 3 months ago

I'm not surprised that teens are under-represented on Twitter.
However, teens are most likely to participate by texting from their cell phones, so I don't think these #'s are accurate w/o some measure of that participation.

Mikayla · 3 months ago

I am a teenager and I feel that twitter is just a simpler version of what teens are already into which is facebook and (maybe was.. but I'm still into it) myspace. I already update my status there, what makes twitter so special?

jim · 3 months ago

Twitter growth is just an overshoot in the demand for social networking sites. People under 25 remain more satisfied with older social networking sites such as facebook while older folks who missed the initial facebook fad want to be part of the next big thing... which they believe to be twitter.

Kirstin · 3 months ago

Okay, stop.
Being a teen myself [17, if you must know.]
I know for a fact that currently, teenagers prefer facebook.
I've noticed we go through a wave of different social networking sites.
But because teens prefer facebook, hardly any of our friends are on twitter, leading teenagers to create an account but never use it, and really it's just a cycle.
I myself don't actually use twitter. Sure, I log on, but I follow celebs, thats it. Find out what they're doing and log out.

Peter May · 3 months ago

I came to the same conclusion the hard way. I was interviewing a large group of college freshmen for an article I'm writing. I asked the group who had a Facebook page. Everyone raised their hands. I said, "I do too." Thinking I was going to prove how cool I am, I asked "Who Tweets?" No one raised their hand though one young woman freely offered, "That's for old people who think they're cool." I didn't mention @maypro.

Batman · 3 months ago

Well, my daughter is either too busy texting her friends with her phone, or chatting on Facebook to tweet I would imagine, and my son is too busy watching the latest Pokemon YouTube videos....

Chris · 3 months ago

At least 85% my school is on twitter =/ ... Though if third party apps weren't measured the stats might be right ... (I tweets from DestroyTwitter, TinyTwitter, twyt and Flock after going through fair few different apps including twhirl and the actual twitter interface.)

Roc · 3 months ago

28, i want to die

mirweis · 3 months ago

I agree with some of the comments down there pointing out the socializing and privacy aspects. Twitter simply does not offer interesting conversational patterns for teenagers to cope with their socializing needs. Twitter is more about a monologue of pushed information (one to many) than creating dialogue (one to one) opportunities.

mirweis · 3 months ago

sorry for the double posting (mashable commenting system is kind of misleading ;-) )

K · 3 months ago

what the fuck do teenagers know anyway

kluxas · 3 months ago

even toddlers can learn new tricks

obilon · 3 months ago

I wrote about his on my blog in a post, "Twitter? As If!" Sorry Twitter. Teens just aren’t that into you. And Facebook – you’re next. http://lonscohen.com/blog/2009/08/twitter-as-if/

Your Name* · 3 months ago

Give it some time....they'll (teens) will come around.

RAM-fish · 3 months ago

I'm 15 years old and the only reason I got a Twitter account was because people couldn't understand why I didn't want one. It's just easier to say, "Yes, I have Twitter" rather than "No, I don't" because apparently, the latter option requires a rather long explanation. I don't tweet because if what I want to say can be said in under 140 characters, then it's probably not really worth mentioning. I'd much prefer to use other popular sites that allow me to say however much I want to.

HotelQueen · 3 months ago

I think a lot of people are misinterpreting this statistic. Younger demographics are often the early adopters, and just like facebook, twitter is receiving a huge growth in more mainstream and older demographics. Parents are joining to communicate with their kids, and the tweeting celebs are getting mainstream media coverage. It has nothing to do with "teens don't tweet" and everything to do with an expanding non-geek and middle-aged market.

Esther · 3 months ago

my teen would rather aim -

Salman · 3 months ago

I guess the more valid question is not why are teen users twitter shy - but where teen users spend most of their online time? i.e. what is their social media twitter-esque substitute? Facebook? MySpace? SMS?

Toni · 3 months ago

I think the rate of growth has happened for both the older and teen category, and will continue to grow as you can see in the trend already. Many didn't really understand or see the relevance of twitter, until they begin to use it. I was a little skeptic and awkward using it at first...now I love it!
Also, twitter is great for people you don’t know, unlike FaceBook, which is more for people you know. They both have a significant place in the internet world, and I think Twitter will only continue gaining prominence with all ages.
Capo 4!!!!

Michael Golrick · 3 months ago

This is clearly wrong, and is based on the flawed method which you even cite here: "Nielsen is only measuring people who visit Twitter.com (not desktop and mobile clients)".

This headline reflects the same kinds of assumptions that resulted in the "Dewey Wins" for the 1948 Presidential election.

Bookie · 3 months ago

It's not wrong, it's true, and this did not surprise me or irk me at all - I accepted it, because I already knew it. None of my friends use Twitter, they treat it like a joke.

Bookie · 3 months ago

Twitter isn't "cool" with the teens at the moment - almost every teen uses Facebook, and they're happy with it. Twitter doesn't offer an easy to way to upload photos, participate in little "what character are you?" quizes, reply to stats and have threaded conversation, chat in real time...

Meanwhile, people who do see the real beauty and simplicity of Twitter are those that run a website, forum, blog, or otherwise have some sort of community or fandom surrounding them. Teens have already built a network - but on Facebook/MySpace, not Twitter. Teens consider Twitter a bit of a joke, such as "who has the most followers", not who has the most interesting tweets.

And yes, I'm a teen. I tried to get my friends to join it, but it didn't work. I don't use Twitter for personal use, it's more of a way to connect to people online who I *don't* know, who offer interesting quotes and tidbits of trivia that my friends would find boring. Twitter is for making friends, not importing them from Facebook.

guest34256 · 3 months ago

The reason why, from my understanding, is because we find twitter boring. we also think it's pretentious and self-centered to expect other people to be interested in what our daily schedule looks like. Also, facebook is the big thing for young people right now, and we can update our status on there - so why would we go and use yet another website for the same purpose?

guest34256 · 3 months ago

The reason why, from my understanding, is because we find twitter boring. we also think it's pretentious and self-centered to expect other people to be interested in what our daily schedule looks like. Also, facebook is the big thing for young people right now, and we can update our status on there - so why would we go and use yet another website for the same purpose?

TeensAbout · 3 months ago

Well, i know who's going to change that. It's call TeensAbout.com (http://www.TeensAbout.com) it's a twitter clone for teens with live image and text updates.

Rooturaj Pattanaik · 3 months ago

Well isn't the 16% a lot more in number than the 20% in green bar? Its the stupid facebook quizzes that is holding them back. (or so I feel)

tyrewebdesign · 2 months ago

I'm 16 and use twitter more than any adult I know (except 1). Personally I find Facebook IS getting old, and it is just too cluttered with stuff i don't want. Although there may not be a higher percentage of young people on tweetdeck, I think you may find slightly different results if you add in all the people who tweet from their iPod Touch's. Many of my friends don't tweet though, because they just don't want to sign up to ANOTHER online service that they have to check. I feel the same way, and that is why I dropped facebook.

tommy · 2 months ago

maybe theres nothing really interesting to tweet?

Name · 1 month ago

"not desktop and mobile clients" -- something to think about people. Teens are glued to their cells and computers these days...