Teens don't tweet: Twitter growth not fuelled by youth

Research from Nielsen NetRatings supports the Morgan Stanley report written by a 15-year-old intern that declared teenagers do not use Twitter.

According to Nielsen, only 16 per cent of Twitter users were under the age of 25, while bearing in mind persons under 25 make up nearly one quarter of the active internet universe, which means that Twitter effectively under-indexes on the youth market by 36 per cent.

While Twitter has grown massively in the past six months - it is now used by about 10 per cent of all active internet users - this growth comes despite a lack of widespread adoption by children, teens and young adults.

Nielsen panelled 250,000 internet users and found that Twitter's reach is 6.6 per cent for kids, teens and young adults, whereas it is 12.1 per cent for those over 25 - implying that adults are trying Twitter at nearly double the rate, and the kids simply don't get it.

David Martin, vice president primary research, said: "But does it really matter if the kids don't get it? The fact remains that Twitter has grown to be a major online presence and is being driven forward by significant buzz."

Martin said the volume of Twitter mentions on blogs, message boards and forums has reached the same level as Facebook, a property four times its size, and that it's growth is highly influenced by buzz around current events such as the Iran election.

He said: "All it takes is one celebrity or major news story to rekindle the Twitter buzz machine, but do these one-off shifts create one-time curiosity seekers or lead to more permanent users?  That's the unanswered question."

In July, a 15-year-old Morgan Stanley intern made headlines when he denounced Twitter as a place for adults, saying that teens generally preferred Facebook.

This article was first published on revolutionmagazine.com

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