Four or More: The New Demographic

Mary MaddenPew Internet & American Life ProjectLITA President’s ProgramALA – June 27, 2010

(and a bunch of other really interesting stuff)

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Common assumptions about tech use:

• Everyone uses the internet• Every teen has a cell phone…• … and all teens text constantly, sending an insane

number of messages a day• Teens no longer call anyone on the phone• Teens and young adults have been supplanted by

older adults on social networks• The youngest are always the first tech adopters• Young adults don’t care about privacy, particularly

online

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Young adults lead in cell phone adoption

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Teens & young adults still more likely to use SNS

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SNS use typically starts in high school…

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Teens are not always the first adopters…

Twitter use among teens

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Who gives a tweet?

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Thinking about the ways you use social networking sites… Do you ever…

All SNS users 18-29 30-49 50+

Change the privacy settings for your profile to limit what you share with others online 65 71 62 52

Delete people from your network or friends’ list 56 64 52 42

Keep some people from seeing certain updates 52 58 52 36

Filter updates posted by some of your friends 41 44 43 27

Delete comments that others have made on your profile 36 47 29 24

Remove your name from photos that have been tagged to identify you 30 41 24 16

Post updates, comments, photos or videos that you later regret sharing 12 19 9 4

Young adults are curators of content

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Four or more: Who are they?

Under age 50Mostly

male

Racially diverse

Higher SES

*All analysis of the 4+ group based on September 2009 data

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Younger than average, not as young as you might think

Age Four or More All Adults

18-29 40% 21%

30-49 49% 35%

50-64 8% 25%

65+ 1% 16%

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Just as racially diverse as the general population

Race / ethnicity Four or More All Adults

White 69% 69%

African-American 10% 12%

Hispanic 12% 13%

Other 9% 6%

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More typical indicators:

• Mostly men (64% vs. 36% - relative to 48% vs. 52% avg.)

• Somewhat more likely to be college grads (37% vs. 28% avg.)

• Somewhat more likely to earn $75K+ per yr. (33% vs. 21% avg.)

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What devices are they using?

Among the four or more group:

– 97% own desktops (vs. 62%)

– 96% own laptops (vs. 47%)

– 98% own cell phones (vs. 84%)

– 97% own iPods/MP3 players (vs. 43%)

– 85% own game consoles (vs. 37%)

– 57% own portable gaming devices (vs. 18%)

– 13% own e-book readers (vs. 3%)

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Mobile devices = mobile access

• Those who own multiple internet-enabled devices are almost all wireless internet users:

– Among those who have one device: 24% use wireless

– Two devices: 89% use wireless

– Three devices: 100% use wireless

– Four devices: 100% use wireless

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Internet everywhere

• Among the four or more group:

– 91% go online daily (vs. 68%)

– 75% go online from both home and work (vs. 51%)

– 78% go online from someplace other than home/work (vs. 48%)

All rates are significantly higher than those for broadband users

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Social media matters

– 77% have created their own profile on an SNS site (vs. 46%)

– 50% visit SNS sites on a typical day (vs. 27%)

– 39% use Twitter or status updating (vs. 19%)

– 24% have created a blog (vs. 11%)

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Online reputation matters

– 77% have searched for information connected to their name online (vs. 57%)

– 50% say they take steps to limit the amount of information available about them online (vs. 33%)

– 33% work for a company that has a policy about self-presentation online (vs. 25%)

– 25% are required to promote themselves online as part of their job (vs. 12%)

– 16% have asked to have online content about them taken offline (vs. 8%)

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Thinking about the ways you use social networking sites… Do you ever…

All SNS users

Four or more

Change the privacy settings for your profile to limit what you share with others online 65 72

Delete people from your network or friends’ list 56 67

Keep some people from seeing certain updates 52 61

Filter updates posted by some of your friends 41 55

Delete comments that others have made on your profile 36 41

Remove your name from photos that have been tagged to identify you 30 33

Post updates, comments, photos or videos that you later regret sharing 12 7

Four or more and profile management

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Implications for libraries

Question broadly held assumptions about tech use (me and a friend don’t always make a trend)

Patrons will increasingly rely on multiple access points and cloud-supported apps

Mobile internet users are social media users

Privacy and reputation management are exceptionally important to the most tech-savvy groups

Thanks!

Contact info:Mary Madden Email: mmadden@pewinternet.orgWeb: http://www.pewinternet.orgTwitter: @mary_madden