Twitter,
Facebook Lack
by Laurie Sullivan
Twitter and other
social services like Facebook that allow people to update their status still
lack clout on wireless devices. Only 10% of the 59% of adult Americans who go
online wirelessly have used their mobile phone or wireless laptop to access a
status update service, according to a study released Wednesday by the Pew
Internet & American Life Project.
While the
percentage who access status update apps via a wireless device remains
relatively low, the study reveals that adults tap into technology to do a
variety of other tasks. Fifty-four percent have used their mobile device to
send someone a photo or video, 23% have accessed a social networking site, 20%
watched a video, and 15% posted a photo or a video online. A smaller number --
11% -- admit to purchasing at least one product using their mobile phone, and
11% say they made a charitable donation through a text message.
Aaron
Smith, Pew research specialist, points to the growing number of adults ages 30
to 49 who access the Internet through mobile devices. Seniors are the group
with the lowest levels of wireless Internet use. Eight in 10 seniors ages 65
and older are either Internet users who do not go online wirelessly or do not
go online at all. "Aside from older adults, we also noticed a lot of
growth among lower-income households, too, something that we hadn't necessarily
seen before," he says.
Income and
education makes a difference. Seventeen percent of those earning less than
$30,000 per year are mobile-phone-only users, as are 20% who have not graduated
from high school and 15% of those who graduated from high school but not
attended college. It makes sense that people earning less income would have
only have a mobile phone.
The study also
finds that the use of non-voice data applications has grown in the past year.
Taking pictures with a camera mobile phone tops the list. In May 2010, 76% of
survey participants admit to taking pictures from their camera phone, up from
66% in April 2009. Sending and receiving text messages followed, with 72% and
65%; accessing the Internet, 38% and 23%; playing a game, 34% and 27%; sending
or receiving email, 34% and 25%; recording a video, 34% and 19%; playing music,
33% and 21%; and sending or receiving instant messages, 30% and 20%,
respectively.
People are
going online via mobile devices more frequently. Forty-three percent of adult
mobile phone Internet users go online through their device several times daily,
up from 37% in September 2009, and 24% in April 2009; followed by 12% once
daily, up from 15% and 12%; and 8% three to five times weekly, up from 9% and
10%, respectively.
When it
comes to data applications, African-Americans and Latinos outpace Caucasians on
handheld devices, a trend that Pew first identified in 2009. Sixty-four percent
of African-Americans and 63% of Latinos use the wireless Internet. It turn out
that minorities living in
African-Americans and Latinos tend to take advantage of more types of data
functions, compared with Caucasian cell phone owners. Eighty-seven percent of
African-Americans and English-speaking Hispanics own a cell phone, compared
with 80% of whites, according to Pew.
This year,
for the first time, Pew asked survey participants whether they own a tablet
such as an iPad, and 3% said "yes." About six in 10 of the 3 percent
who own tablets use their device to access the Internet. Given the small amount
of tablet owners, these findings are not detailed in the study.
About 2,252
adults participated in the study, conducted through telephone interviews
between April 19 and
For
more information visit www.mediapost.com