Social networking sites are primarily populated by young users, but the number of American adult Internet users with a profile on such websites is now four times higher than it was three years ago, a survey by Pew Internet & American Life Project revealed. The number of American adults with social network profile increased from 8% in 2005 to 35% at the end of last year.
But since adults make up for a larger portion of the US population than teens, this means that they also use social networking sites in greater number than their younger counterparts. Still, the study explains, younger adult users are more likely to use social networking sites (75 percent of adults aged 18-24) than older adults (7 percent of adults aged 65 or older).
Furthermore, social networking sites were also found to have a more prevalent personal use rather than a professional one. Statistics have shown that half of the adult social network users have a profile on MySpace, less than a quarter have a profile on Facebook, and only 6 percent use LinkedIn (which is dedicated to professional networking).
Furthermore, almost 90 percent of social networking adults use their profile to keep in touch with their friends, 57 percent to make plans with their friends, and 49 percent to make new friends, but some adults also use social networking sites to organize events, flirt, promote themselves or their work, or to make new business contacts.
During the political campaign, social networking sites were also used to discover friends’ political interests and affiliations (29 percent), to obtain campaign or candidate information (22 percent), to sign up as a friend of a candidate (10 percent) and even to start or join a political group (9 percent).
The survey also found that more than half the adult users keep two or more online profiles, either to keep up with friends on different sites, for separated personal and professional use, and even for different parts of their personality.
There is no specific gender differentiation between male and female users among adults, however, it is worth noting that younger adults are more likely to use these sites, and so are students. Furthermore, Whites (31%) are less likely than African-American (43%) or Hispanics (48%) to have a profile on an online social network.
As the number of social network users increases each year, apparently so does their sense of caution. The survey found that although adults can dispose of their online information as they please, 60 percent of them choose to restrict access to their online profiles for friends only, and only 36 percent allow anyone to view it.
But, 43 percent of adults with profiles on social networking sites also admitted that based on their online profile, one could figure out who they are, and only 20 percent said it would be very difficult to learn who they are based on their profile.
