Pew Internet & American Life Project : A study on Older Adults and Social Media

The Pew Internet Project

The Pew Internet Project is an initiative of the Pew Research Center, that provides information on the issues, attitudes and trends shaping America and the world. The Project studies the social impact of the internet.

 The Project fielded its first survey about the general role of the internet and email in people’s lives in March 2000.

In its early days the Project team decided to focus their work on two strains of research. First the Project would monitor basic online activities: Who was using the internet? What were they doing? Second, the Project would focus research on several dimensions of social life that were not much studied by other firms: How was people’s internet use affecting their families, communities, health care, educational pursuits, civic and political life, and workplace activities?

The Project’s reports are based on nationwide random phone surveys, online surveys, and qualitative research. This data collection is supplemented with research from government agencies, technology firms, academia, and other expert venues. The Project releases 15-20 pieces of research a year, varying in size, scope, and ambition.

A  study on Older Adults and Social Media by Pew Internet Project

Introduction: While social media use has grown dramatically across all age groups, older users have been especially enthusiastic over the past year about embracing new networking tools. Social networking use among internet users ages 50 and older nearly doubled—from 22% in April 2009 to 42% in May 2010.

• Between April 2009 and May 2010, social networking use among internet users ages 50-64 grew by 88%--from 25% to 47%.
• During the same period, use among those ages 65 and older grew 100%--from 13% to 26%.
• By comparison, social networking use among users ages 18-29 grew by 13%—from 76% to 86%.

Young adults continue to be the heaviest users of social media, but their growth pales in comparison with recent gains made by older users. Email is still the primary way that older users maintain contact with friends, families and colleagues, but many older users now rely on social network platforms to help manage their daily communications.

• One in five (20%) online adults ages 50-64 say they use social networking sites on a typical day, up from 10% one year ago.
• Among adults ages 65 and older, 13% log on to social networking sites on a typical day, compared with just 4% who did so in 2009.

At the same time, the use of status update services like Twitter has also grown—particularly among those ages 50-64. One in ten internet users ages 50 and older now say they use Twitter or another service to share updates about themselves or see updates about others.

Methodology

All data was collected by  telephone interviews between April 29 and May 30, 2010, among a sample of 2,252 adults, age 18 and older. Interviews were conducted in English.  A combination of landline and cellular random digit dial (RDD) samples was used to represent all adults in the continental United States who have access to either a landline or cellular telephone.  For results based on the total sample, one can say with 95% confidence that the error attributable to sampling and other random effects is plus or minus 2.4 percentage points.  For results based Internet users (n=1,756), the margin of sampling error is plus or minus 2.7 percentage points.  In addition to sampling error, question wording and practical difficulties in conducting telephone surveys may introduce some error or bias into the findings of opinion polls.