C’est encore une fois Pew Internet qui nous offre un profil sociodémographique des usagers de Twitter [2](PDF) chez nos voisins américains. Dans le document, nous pouvons noter les différents usages de Twitter (qui sont un peu similaires à ce que j’avais décrit comme ma propre utilisation [3] et dans mon billet Twitter, le nouveau fil de presse? [4]).
As with many technologies, enthusiastic users have used Twitter for more than just answering the question, “What are you doing?” Twitter has been used to help organize and disseminate information during major events like the 2008 California wildfires, the recent American elections, the Mumbai massacre and even the January 2009 crash of US Airways flight 1549 into the Hudson River. Janis Krum, a passenger on a ferry that rushed to the scene, took a photo of the plane with a cell phone and sent it out via his Twitter feed. Twitter and other status updates have also been used for many other purposes including the airing of complaints against companies, sharing ideas, forwarding interesting material, documenting events, conversing and flirting.
Petite mise au point personnelle, je n’utilise pas Twitter à des fins de drague :-). Pew dresse aussi le portrait sociodémo des usagers américains
Twitter and similar services have been most avidly embraced by young adults. Nearly one in five (19%) online adults ages 18 to 24 have ever used Twitter and its ilk, as have 20% of online adults 25 to 34. Use of these services drops off steadily after age 35 with 10% of 35 to 44 year olds and 5% of 45 to 54 year olds using Twitter. The decline is even more stark among older internet users; 4% of 55-64 year olds and 2% of those 65 and older use Twitter.
Twitter est directement relié à l’utilisation d’autres médias sociaux ce qui confirme la thèse que les utilisateurs précoces de cette technologie sont le 2e groupe le plus influent du Web après les médias traditionnels, c’est-à-dire les supergeeks et les superblogueurs [5]:
(…)The use of Twitter is highly intertwined with the use of other social media; both blogging and social network use increase the likelihood that an individual also uses Twitter. Adults who use online social networks are much more likely to say that they have used Twitter or some other service to update their status and read the status updates of others.
Finalement, Pew remarque aussi que l’âge médian de Twitter est plus élevé que celui des utilisateurs de MySpace et Facebook.
(…)As noted above, Twitter users are overwhelmingly young. However, unlike the majority of other applications with a similarly large percentage of youth, Twitter use is not dominated by the youngest of young adults. Indeed, the median age of a Twitter user is 31. In comparison, the median age of a MySpace user is 27, Facebook user is 26 and LinkedIn user is 40.