Only About 11% of Adult Americans Are Active on Twitter

Only About 11% of Adult Americans Are Active on Twitter

Elon Musk’s purchase of Twitter has been the focus of the media and politicians for the past few days.

For the vast majority of Americans, however, Twitter is Alaska — a place they have heard about, but never visited.

Politicians spun the importance of the purchase. "This deal is dangerous for our democracy. Billionaires like Elon Musk play by a different set of rules than everyone else, accumulating power for their own gain. We need a wealth tax and strong rules to hold Big Tech accountable," Tweeted U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA).

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And, Congresswoman Yvette Herrell (R-N.M.) congratulated Musk and tweeted that she was “looking forward to a free-speech oriented Twitter.”

But the reality is that Twitter may not be worth all the hype.

Twitter is tied with WhatsApp for the 7th most used social media platform, according to Pew Research.

 

 

Just 23% of Americans have Twitter accounts and less than half — 46% — use their accounts regularly.

In contrast, 69% of Americans have Facebook accounts, and 70% use it regularly. Thus, roughly 50% of Americans are using their Facebook account once or more times a day, and only about 11% use their Twitter account daily.

 

Younger Users

"Majorities of 18- to 29-year-olds say they use Instagram or Snapchat and about half say they use TikTok, with those on the younger end of this cohort – ages 18 to 24 – being especially likely to report using Instagram (76%), Snapchat (75%) or TikTok (55%)," according to Pew. "These shares stand in stark contrast to those in older age groups. For instance, while 65% of adults ages 18 to 29 say they use Snapchat, just 2% of those 65 and older report using the app – a difference of 63 percentage points."