Older Adults and Social Media

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%.

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.

• Just 5% of users ages 50-64 had used Twitter or another status update service in 2009, and 11% now say they use these tools.
• On a typical day, 6% of online adults ages 50-64make Twitter a part of their routine, up from the 1% who did so in 2009.