14 DAY TRIAL // Somehow the issue of whether teenagers do or do not tweet is of great importance to humanity and merits a significant number of studies and researches. Not one to miss out on an opportunity like this, comScore has decided, like others before it, it can provide people with some final and definitive answers and put everyone's worries to rest. It turns out that, while Twitter may not be that popular with the teens for now, that trend is shifting and the microblogging service is becoming increasingly popular with the younger users.
“As the Twitter audience has mushroomed in recent months – to 21 million U.S. visitors in July 2009 (note: this number represents visitors to the Twitter.com website and does not include API or mobile Twitter usage) – the younger age groups are the ones flooding in the fastest,” the study's authors have found. “The share of visitors to Twitter under the age of 35 is increasing at a breakneck pace. The most notable positive shifts are evident among the 12-17 and 18-24 year old segments, which are coming at the expense of the 35+ segments.”
The study looked at the growth of the microblogging service in the past several months and saw that, while teenagers and young adults made up a smaller part of Twitter's overall audience, their numbers were growing faster than those of any other age group. The data shows that those between 12 and 24 years old are using the site in larger numbers, but that alone may not provide the whole picture without some perspective on whether the trend is local or mirrors the Internet as a whole.
Fortunately, comScore also provides a composition index that shows how the age groups are doing in comparison with their overall representation. An index figure of 100 would represent the average percentage the particular age group should have. The data shows that, for the most part, younger users have under-idexed, meaning they have been present in smaller percentages on Twitter than on the Internet, but this has changed recently, with all user groups under 24 years old now over-indexing, while those older are actually under-indexing, a complete reversal of the standings of just a few months ago.