Social Network Use Lags Among Wealthy and Educated

The Pew Internet & American Life Project released new research that shows “Fully 65% of adult internet users now say they use a social networking site like MySpace, Facebook or LinkedIn, up from 61% one year ago. This marks the first time in Pew Internet surveys that 50% of all adults use social networking sites.”

The most important result of the research is that it shows use is high among people under 49 years old, people who make less than $50,000 a year, ethnic minorities and people with only a high school degree. Older Americans — who tend to hold many of the positions of power in companies and politics — whites and people with higher educations fell at the national averages or below them.

The convenient argument about why older Americans do not use social networks is that these were only created in the past several years and were originally adopted by college students. That is not a fair assessment. Pew data released just three months ago show that people with incomes over $75,000 where more likely to use search engines than people with incomes under $30,000 by a spread of 98% to 90%. The difference in the use of search based on education was even greater. Ninety-six percent of people with more than a college degree used search engines. Only 81% of people with less than a high school diploma do. The spreads are even greater when frequency of use is factored in. Age is also a factor in the use of search — “Compared with teens and Generation Y, older generations use the internet less for socializing and entertainment and more as a tool for information searches, emailing and buying products.”

Pew research on use of devices that rely on the internet show similar patterns. Ownership of e-readers is dominated by people with higher incomes, higher education and those in the age group 50 to 64. The use of social networks is an exception and not a rule for online behavior and its relationship to age, education, ethnic background and income.

Pew does not offer reasons for the trends among its surveys. One possibility is that social networks have limited utility for news gathering, financial transactions, education and user-driven search. Social networks have a means of search all their own, but the search is based on the opinions of other members and not the self-directed use of Google (NASDAQ: GOOG). Social network contacts may comment about news events, but they do not report them. Social network friends do not facilitate online financial transactions. Social network contacts may recommend the purchase of certain goods and services, but they are not e-commerce destinations.

The recent Pew research studies on the internet raise questions they may not be suited to answer or have not answered. Are social networks used less by people with higher eduction, income and age because of when these networks were founded? Or is it because the value of social networks to gain and maintain education, and the information that fuels it, and income is too small?

Douglas A. McIntyre