Twitter gripped the attention of the world after Elon Musk’s bid for the social media. Today twitter is a worldwide phenomenon with people using the platform for various purposes. A latest survey by Pew Research Centre looked at how America viewed Twitter, whether they used to break and comment on news, disseminate official pronouncements, organ re campaigns and protests, or just let their friends know what’s on their minds.
USAGE
Around one-in-five US Adults about 23 per cent) say they use Twitter. The survey points out that the share of usage by the Americans remained consistent and is similar to the share who use Snapchat (25 per cent) and WhatsApp (23 per cent). However, the survey noted that a much larger share of adults use YouTube (81 per Gen). FAcebook (69 per cent) and Instagram (40 per cent).
POLITICS
Around a third of Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents (32 per cent) remarked that they use Twitter, 15 percentage points more than the share of Republicans and Republican leaners who say the same (17%).
The survey found that U.S. adults under 30 are more likely than older Americans to use Twitter. About 42 per cent of adults ages 18 to 29 said they use it. Well, only seven per cent of Americans above 65 and older use this platform.
TWEET PRODUCTION
When talking of tweetting, the survey found that only a minority of Twitter users produce the vast majority of tweets. Among US adults who use Twitter, the top 25 per cent of users by tweet volume produce 97 per cent of all tweets, while the bottom 75 per cent of users produce just three percent.
IMPACT ON DEMOCRACY
Almost half of Twitter users who are Democrats or who lean Democratic (47 per cent ) say Twitter is mostly good for American democracy. However, only 17 per cent of Republicans and Republican leaners say so. Republican Twitter users, in turn, are roughly twice as likely as Democratic users to say the site is bad for American democracy (60 per cent vs. 28 per cent ).
HARASSING AND ABUSIVE BEHAVIOUR
Around one-in-five adult users in the US experienced harassing or abusive behaviour on the platform. Meanwhile, a third said that they saw a lot of inaccurate or misleading information in Twitter. The majority of adult Twitter users have not experienced harassing or abusing behaviour on the site, but 17 per cent say this has happened to them personally,
Meanwhile, the vast majority of Twitter users (91 per cent say they come across at least some inaccurate or misleading information on the platform, and 33 per cent say they come across a lot of this sort of content. Republican Twitter users are more likely than Democrats to say they come across a lot of inaccurate or misleading information (45 per centrs, 27 per cent).
AUDIENCE
Around a fifth of the adult users think nobody sees their tweets. Most users assume their tweets have a very limited audience. The majority (67 per cent) think only a few people see their content, and 21 per cent think nobody sees it.
Still, more than half of Twitter users (54 per cent) consider whether the content they post publicly on Twitter could be used against them in the future before doing something that might be visible to other people on the site. And comparable shares consider who can see these things (53 per cent) or whether that activity portrays them in a positive light to others (49 per cent).
For some users, these CONCERNS are not just hypothetical. About one-in-five Twitter users (21%) say they have posted something on the site that they later regretted sharing,
News
Most of the twitter users say that their use of Twitter for news has increased their understanding of current events Overall, the Pew Centre points out that around seven-in-ten adult (69 per cent) get news on the site. A 57 per cent of those who get news on Twitter say using the platform has increased their understanding of current events, compared with 23 per cent of other Twitter users.
