Four or More: The New Demographic

Four or More: The New Demographic Mary Madden Pew Internet & American Life Project LITA President’s Program ALA – June 27, 2010 (and a bunch of other really interesting stuff)

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
June 27, 2010

Young adults lead in cell phone adoption

June 27, 2010

Teens & young adults still more likely to use SNS

SNS use typically starts in high school…

Teens are not always the first adopters… Twitter use among teens

Who gives a tweet?

June 27, 2010

Young adults are curators of content 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

Four or more: Who are they? Under age 50 Mostly male Racially diverse Higher SES *All analysis of the 4+ group based on September 2009 data

Younger than average, not as young as you might think June 27, 2010 Age Four or More All Adults 18-29 40% 21% 30-49 49% 35% 50-64 8% 25% 65+ 1% 16%

Just as racially diverse as the general population June 27, 2010 Race / ethnicity Four or More All Adults White 69% 69% African-American 10% 12% Hispanic 12% 13% Other 9% 6%

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.)
June 27, 2010

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%)

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

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

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%)

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%)

Four or more and profile management 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

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.org Web: http://www.pewinternet.org Twitter: @mary_madden

http://www.pewinternet.org	3207
http://pewinternet.org	1774
https://blackboard.vcu.edu	882
http://pragmaticmarketing.typepad.com	432
http://www.penn-olson.com	348
http://brandandmarket.com	156
http://bb.plsweb.com	151
http://libraries.pewinternet.org	95
http://blogs.kxan.com	89
http://www.techinasia.com	72
http://productmarketing.com	39
http://dcamd.com	14
http://sjohnson717.posterous.com	13
http://sjohnson717.tumblr.com	11
http://www.productmarketing.com	11
http://pewinternet.com	10
http://static.slidesharecdn.com	10
http://www.pewinternet.com	7
http://xyofeinstein.wordpress.com	7
http://blog.alivenow.in	7
http://translate.googleusercontent.com	5
http://www.nowmedia.it	5
http://www.dcamd.com	3
http://www.linkedin.com	3
http://www.digitalparents.org	2
https://twitter.com	1
http://www.bing.com	1
http://blogs.searchenginewiki.pewinternet.com	1
http://www.4gy.ch	1
http://fe01.pewinternet.org	1
http://seba.tumblr.com	1
http://sjohnson717.blogspot.com	1
http://67.192.40.213	1
http://adla-digicat.wikispaces.com	1
http://tumblr.sebarod.cl	1
http://www.google.co.uk	1
http://www.pewinternet.org.	1
http://www.google.com	1

Four or More: The New Demographic

by Pew Research Center's Internet & American Life Project

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