Twitter not for teens
There’ve been a few reports about the demographics of Twitter recently; it would seem that, despite being a funky, young, web start-up, Twitter’s users aren’t that young and, if I’m typical, not at all funky. All this seems to have started about three weeks ago when a fifteen-year-old intern at MorganStanley wrote a paper to that effect.
This is, on reflection, no great surprise. By its brevity, Twitter favours those who are time-poor. You need, of course, an internet connection. That makes Twitter ideal for people working away in an office, but less attractive for younger people who are less likely to spend a ten-hour working day at a computer looking for brief social interactions and escapes.
The final point in the argument is a poster I saw today. When someone thinks ‘what a good idea’ to receiving train times by Twitter from First Capital Connect for their commute, you know it’s not for kids.
xD.
August 7th, 2009 at 1:01 pm
Seems about right – younger people aren’t so much interested in sitting in a chair telling the world what’s going on as moving around telling their mates what’s going on, which means texting, largely.
This is, I admit, based on observations of my partner’s younger sister, who’s 23 and a virtually continuous texter. She is on Facebook, however, but Twitter is completely lacking in any kind of interest to her. Lacks the immediacy of SMS and the depth of Facebook, I suspect.