A new study of Pew Research Center shows the image of a "pause" in the use of Twitter by American adults, but the data does not link it to Elon Musk's takeover of the social media platform as the reason. The Pew survey, which was conducted over a week in March, reports that the majority of US Twitter users, 60%, said they had taken a break from Twitter after using the service for "several weeks." or more” during the past year.
Elon Musk officially acquired Twitter on October 27, 2022, which means the company has only been in his possession for over 6 months, not a full year. In other words, whatever prompted Twitter users to take long breaks from the app may or may not have anything to do with the new owner. And, because Pew Research didn't offer any historical data to compare, it's also unclear if this has been a regular pattern for Twitter users before this period.
Still, the data is interesting as it appears to show that, at least for some of its users, Twitter hasn't built such an addictive platform that it has become a mandatory daily habit. Compared to Meta's social apps, with 3.02 billion daily active users As of the first quarter, some Twitter users are skipping the app for long periods of time, if Pew data is to be believed (the methodology can be seen here) and involved more than 10,000 respondents, if it is of interest).
The Pew study shows that 69% of women compared to 54% of men said they took a break from Twitter in the past 12 months. Meanwhile, 67% of black users said they took a break from the app compared to 60% of white users and 54% of Hispanic users. (The survey data did not include enough Asian-American Twitter users to provide a detailed analysis, the firm noted.)
This might suggest that it's not politics or age (groups that didn't see significant differences) that are leading people to stay away from Twitter for a while. Rather, it targets the demographic that has historically faced the most harassment on the platform, according to previous analysis. and reports, including those de International Amnesty.
But Pew Research fails to prove that any of this is related to Musk, as the report looks at the past 12 months and not, for example, a comparison of usage before and after Musk owned Twitter. If anything, this might suggest why Twitter, all along, has struggled to gain traction compared to its social media peers, because it's never fully reined in the abuse that takes place on the app, despite its claims. constantly evolving policies. that's all.
In a separate study, also published, Pew takes a look at Twitter's possible future by asking current and recent Twitter users how likely they are to use the platform a year from now.
More people (40%) said it was “extremely” or “very likely” that they would, while 35% said “it is possible”.
However, there was still a worrying quarter (25%) of current and recent Twitter users who said they were "unlikely" or "not at all likely" to use the app a year from now.
Image: Pew Research Center
Again, the demographics from the previous survey hold true, with current or recent Twitter users who are male responding that they will "probably" use the platform within a year, or 47% vs. 31% for women. .
Pew also found an ideological divide in terms of who sees themselves on Twitter in the future.
Current or recent users who are Republican or Republican-leaning are more likely than Democrats to say they are "likely" to return to Twitter in a year, or 45% vs. 36%. Republicans were also more likely to say it's "extremely likely" that they're still on Twitter than Democrats, or 25% vs. 17%.
None of this necessarily points to a decline in active Twitter users, since we don't know how common it has been for users to "take breaks" in the past. But other polls suggest that was happening. For example, a BuzzFeed News study suggested that Twitter users in the US had decreased by 9% since the Musk acquisition. Another SimilarWeb report (via Vox), said Twitter had higher traffic in the pre-Musk era than it did in January 2023. He noted that visitor growth slowed year-over-year from 4,7% in November 2022 to -2% in January 2023.
Musk responded to these claims in November, saying that Twitter usage was at an “all-time high”, and more recently, data from Apptopia seemingly backed up this claim, showing that Twitter's daily active users grew from 229 million in the first quarter of 2022 to 246,8 million as of October 2022. Digiday showed in April an average increase of 1,3 million new users each month. This report did not break down the topics by country, but the US is the country of Twitter bigger market.
In any case, what the Pew data indicates is not the extent to which Musk's policies and the general chaos at Twitter have affected the use of the app in the US, but how far the company has to go to be the kind of app that users don't regularly pause.
