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96 per cent of US adults on social networks are on Facebook

by Zen Terrelonge
Friday, November 4th 2011 at 5:03PM

96 per cent of US adults on social networks are on Facebook

The choice of all ages right up to those over 67.

Digital researcher Forrester says among consumers who use social networks, it’s Facebook that rules. It has 96 per cent of users, ahead of second-place LinkedIn and third-place Twitter.

98 per cent of young whippersnappers aged 18-22 and golden oldies aged 67+ used Facebook, while no age group was lower than 95 per cent, according to the report.

Results show LinkedIn grabbed 28 per cent but this is unsurprising given that the site is focused on business and employment networking.

Twitter was found to appeal to mostly younger users with 38 per cent of those aged 18-22, a stark contrast to the eight per cent of those 67+ using it. This is arguably down to Twitter being seen as complex what with hashtags, retweets, trends and so on.

The report claims younger users are more social media hungry as they feverishly comment, update status and maintain profiles more to stay abreast of friends and followers.

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Over 80 per cent of 18-22s check social networking sites at least weekly, though the overall average is 60 per cent and older users is 40 per cent.

These results are undoubtedly fuelled by the growing adoption of smartphones and the available social network app versions, which allow ease of use when on the move.

This is supported by the revelation that boredom and other factors inspire widespread app downloads with some spending up to £20 a month on entertainment.