Over the past three years, sharing updates about oneself has become an increasingly popular activity among American users, the most recent survey by Pew Internet & American Life Project reveals.

 

Over the past year alone, Twitter or other similar services that have almost doubled in popularity: if in May 2008, only 6 percent of Internet users posted updates about themselves, in December the same year, 11 percent of users admitted using such services.

 

Young adults seem to be the ones using Twitter or other similar services the most: almost 19 percent of adults aged 18 to 24, and 20 percent of adults aged 25 to 34. The number of adults over 35 using the services decreases significantly.

 

The study also revealed that wireless Internet users are also more likely to be Twitter users, and that both blogging and social networking use increase the likelihood that an individual also uses Twitter.

 

Trying to make up a portrait of the average Twitter user requires a lot of elements to be put together. First of all, the user is most likely to be young, however, not a teenager, but rather a 31-year-old adult. Racially and ethnically speaking, Twitter users are more diverse than the full U.S. population, the study also found.

 

In addition to that, Twitter users are more likely to live in urban areas, they are mobile enthusiasts, using laptops, handheld devices, and cell phones, and communicate extensively via untethered mobile devices.

 

The study concluded that Twitter users engage with news and own technology at the same rates as other Internet users. However, the ways in which they use them are different, and brings into spotlight their affinity for mobile, untethered and social opportunities for interaction.