A new study has found that most Americans don’t use Twitter. And only a small percentage of Twitter users are active enough to produce almost all of the tweets.
Pew Research released Monday’s study, which found that 25 per cent of American adults used Twitter. It also revealed that the 25th percent most active Twitter users generated 97 percent all of Twitter tweets.
There are 80 percent of the tweets that come from this active group of people. Only 14 percent of these tweets contain original content.
And despite their high volume of posting, this group receives only modest engagement from the rest of Twitter, with an average of 37 likes and only one retweet a month.
A new survey finds that most Americans don’t use Twitter. And of the people who do, only a small percentage of them are active enough to produce almost all of their tweets.
Pew Research’s study found that 25% of American adults are using Twitter. The most active users produced 97% of all tweets.
MarketWatch study author Aaron Smith said, “In many ways, you see, these folks are kinda talking to their own self a bit,” adding that high volume tweeters don’t have much interaction or positive reinforcement with other people on Twitter.
It is twice as common for high-volume users to claim that they were subjected to harassing and abusive behaviour on the platform as those who follow less frequently.
However, high volume tweeters tend to be less concerned about the general tone and civility of the discussions (by between 27 percent and 42 percent).
Smith stated that users can brush off certain behaviors and will be willing to tolerate some of the things they find problematic in others.
Even though they post a lot, their most active group only receives modest engagement from Twitter. The average number of likes is 37 and the average number of retweets is one per month.
This study found significant differences among Democratic and Republican users of Twitter.
Similar shares of both groups said that issues such as the tone or civility of conversations on the site or the presence of inaccurate or misleading information are major problems.
It is more common for Republican users to claim that Twitter has a problem with the accessibility or visibility of posts (59%) versus 17%) and bans certain users (61%) versus 6 percent).
Responding to a question about Twitter’s impact on American democracy (47%) about half the Democratic Twitter users said it has had a generally positive impact. 28 percent however, stated that its impact is mostly negative.
However, 60 percent of Republican users say that the site is mostly harmful to American democracy. Only 17 percent agree with this assessment.
It also revealed significant differences in the behavior of Democratic and Republican Twitter users.
The study revealed that highly active Twitter users were more inclined to claim their Twitter use has increased their political engagement in the past year.
Smith said that Twitter’s activity trends were similar to others social media outlets.
“My team looked at all social media content from Congressmen to YouTube videos. Smith stated that almost all of the studies show a similarity to where only a few people or groups create most of what is being studied.
“If you ask them about their behavior on the site they will tell you they are mostly there to express their opinions. Smith explained that this all seems to be in line with your expectations.