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rfmcdonaldThe Associated Press' Martha Irvine, in the Globe and Mail, makes a point in the article "Grudgingly, young people finally flock to Twitter" that surprised me somewhat. Between E-mail, Livejournal, Blogspot, Facebook, and, perhaps soon, LinkedIn, I'm already facing information overload. (Yes, that's what I said. Is it that hard to believe?) Adopting another platform, this one something that I still don't understand ... I don't think I'm that atypical of my peers in that respect.
Then again, I might be. One of the researchers quoted argue that "that wireless devices are increasingly a factor in Twitter involvement, as in the more you have — laptop, mobile phone and so on — the more likely you are to tweet." If I get a cell, maybe even an iPhone--I may as well buy into the Apple cult sometime--I suppose that I might download a relevant app.
[M]ore young adults and teens — normally at the cutting edge of technology — are finally coming around to Twitter, using it for class or work, monitoring the minutiae of celebrities' lives.
It's not always love at first tweet, though. Many of them are doing it grudgingly, perhaps because a friend pressures them or a teacher or boss makes them try the 140-character microblogging site.
[. . .]
“Every semester, Twitter is the one technology that students are most resistant to,” says Mr. Silver, a media studies professor at the University of San Francisco, where he regularly teaches a class on how to use various Internet applications. “But it's also the one they end up using the most.”
It is a rare instance, he and others say, of young people adopting an Internet application after many of their older counterparts have already done so.
Their slowness to warm to Twitter comes in part from a fondness for the ease and directness of text messaging and other social networking services that most of their friends already use.
Many also are under the false impression that their Twitter pages have to be public, which is unappealing to a generation that's had privacy drilled into them.
[. . .]
“In some ways, what we're seeing here is a kind of closing of that generational gap as it relates to technology,” says Craig Watkins, a University of Texas professor and author of the book “The Young and the Digital.”
Consider, for instance, that the median age of a Facebook user is now 33, despite the social-networking site's roots as a college hangout, according to the Pew Internet & American Life Project. The median age for Twitter is 31.
And while Facebook's audience is aging, Twitterers are getting younger. Internet tracker comScore Inc. found that 18- to 24-year-olds made up 18 percent of unique visitors to Twitter in September, compared with 11 per cent a year earlier.
Then again, I might be. One of the researchers quoted argue that "that wireless devices are increasingly a factor in Twitter involvement, as in the more you have — laptop, mobile phone and so on — the more likely you are to tweet." If I get a cell, maybe even an iPhone--I may as well buy into the Apple cult sometime--I suppose that I might download a relevant app.
