The United States of Social Media

An interesting study was released yesterday by Arbitron and Edison Research.

It reveals that 48% of all Americans over the age of 11 now have profiles on at least one social networking Web site. That includes 78% of all teenagers.

According to the study, the usage of social networking sites in the U.S. has doubled over the last two years.

Of these people, 30% say they check their profiles "several times a day." That's up from 18% just last year.

Most surprising is that the number of people with social profiles does not decrease with age as much as you might expect.

In fact, usage by people 55 to 64 and 65 and over has increased by about 300% each year over the past few years.

"Social networking has become a part of mainstream media behavior," says Tom Webster of Edison, who also points out that the usage of social networks by 18 to 24-year olds is almost 100%.

For this group, he adds, "Social networks... are the new phone."

I came across this report only minutes after seeing a news story about how the Census Bureau is seeing a very low response rate on its survey.

Maybe the next Census should look to the social network sites instead of people's homes?

-Mark