New average ages of social media users: Twitter 31, Facebook 33, LinkedIn 39, MySpace 26

Some stat and graph updates for you data lovers. According to a review of the newest Pew Internet report, average ages of the top social media sites are shifting and converging. Social media, it seems, is becoming common.

"Today, Twitter is now the second-youngest of the top four social networking sites. Its median age is 31. MySpace's is 26, LinkedIn is 39, and Facebook is 33," says the site.

Use of Twitter amongst 18-24 year-olds has doubled in the last year, the biggest age group rise. Young people are 'flocking to Twitter' contrary to popular wisdom.

In fact, an academic and author is saying that we're seeing the end of social media that hits only certain age groups - in other words, Twitter isn't just for thirtysomethings / Facebook just for teens and so on:

"Craig Watkins [is] a University of Texas professor and author of the book "The Young and the Digital." He says that what we're seeing is "...a kind of closing of that generational gap as it relates to technology." In other words, young and old alike are joining the same networks and socializing in the same spaces."

If you're like me and get asked about the importance of one community over another based on the demographic then the Pew stats will come in handy for campaign planning.

Comments

[twitter.com/Greqo]

This is actually pretty interesting.

[Mark Pack]

Pew are reputable and know their stuff when it comes to surveys, but... how can a poll that is conducted amongst adults (18+) only be used to produce figures for the media age of users of services that allow under-18s to use them?

[Becki]

Interesting!
I would like to see a percentage of each age group using these applications. I am sure that the youngest group of users will be higher for all sites!
Then how can us older users get the kids off the sites we use. I am sick of the language and disrespect some of the younger users use while on Twitter and on Facebook.

Thanks for the info!

[Dennis Slattery]

Very interesting, does anybody know who conducted this research?, I am looking for more info about these networking places.