In the United States, nearly two-thirds of Internet users have a social networking account but those who use it most often are not the typical tech adopters.
The Pew Internet & American Life Project has released its latest report on the way our country interacts with social networking. The subject was little more than a novelty three years ago, when Pew had reported about 29% of the population was using Facebook, Myspace, or the like.
Back in 2005, only 5% of people responding to Pew’s survey said they used social media. The vast majority had probably never even heard that term.
This year, that number has soared to 65%. It’s the first time in Pew’s annual reports that more than half of the country is connected to social networking sites. And it didn’t just barely break 50%; it jumped all the way to nearly two-thirds.
When that much of the population is using social media, there is likely to be much less of a gap between genders, and while that is relatively true, Pew found that female users are more likely to be active on social networks.
In fact, 69% of women in the survey said they use social networking sites, compared to just 60% of men. The most prolific demographic category was the group of female respondents from age 18-29. 89% of those young women said they are on social networking sites, and 69% of them said they log onto Facebook or whatever their site of choice is on a daily basis.
Pew noted that it has found women to be the more prolific social networkers since 2009. This is in direct contrast to most other online of technology-driven trends, which have almost without exception always been more popular with the male demographic.
There are of course no shortage of possible reasons as to why women flock to social media more than men, but the appeal is unquestionably alluring to everyone regardless of age and gender.
