Blogging has declined in popularity among both teens and young adults since 2006. Blog commenting has also fallen among teens. As social-media sites like Facebook grow in popularity among teenagers and young adults.
The study, released Wednesday by the Pew Internet & American Life Project, found that 14 percent of Internet youths, ages 12 to 17, now say they blog, compared with just over a quarter who did so in 2006. And only about half in that age group say they comment on friends’ blogs, down from three-quarters who did so four years ago.
By the fall of 2009, that percentage dropped off to only 14 percent of teens and 15 percent of young adults as blogging “lost its luster for many young users,” said Amanda Lenhart, one of the report’s authors.
73% of wired American teens now use social networking websites, a significant increase from previous surveys. Just over half of online teens (55%) used social networking sites in November 2006 and 65% did so in February 2008.
Palo Alto’s Facebook was used by 73 percent of young adults, compared to 48 percent for MySpace and 14 percent for the professional network LinkedIn, based in Mountain View. About 52 percent of those surveyed had memberships in more than one social network, up from 42 percent in 2008.
The survey results also note that young adults ages 18 to 29 have embraced mobile gadgets and connectivity with 66 percent of them being laptop users. Some 81 percent of those 18 to 29 go online wirelessly compared to 63 percent of 30- to 49-year-olds, and 34 percent of those ages 50 and older. More than half of young adults have accessed the Internet wirelessly on a laptop (55 percent) or a cell phone (53 percent).
The Pew study is the third to come out as part of the centre’s Internet and American Life Project. A total of 800 teens and 2,253 adults were interviewed over the phone for the project.