Pew Internet & American Life Project: First report that includes Pinterest, Instagram, and Tumblr.

by Samantha Jiménez

Photos and Videos as Social Currency Online

The Pew Research Center just released the first report of their “Pew Internet & American Life Project” and even if the results are not unexpected, they are very interesting. At only 16 pages long, the full report is a fast read —mostly made out of graphics— that will help everyone get a better grab of social media demographics. And by everyone I truly mean it, as the report goes to the extent as to explain who are content creators and who are content curators in detail.

“46% of internet users post original photos and videos online they have created themselves and 41% curate photos and videos they find elsewhere on the internet and post on image-sharing sites. Women are more likely than men to use Pinterest, while Instagram and Tumblr attract equal shares of men and women.”

The services measured in the analysis include the already familiar Facebook and Twitter, but it also takes into consideration newer services such as Pinterest, Tumblr, LinkedIn, and Instagram. So it doesn’t matter if you are a self-proclaimed “Social Media Guru” or a Baby Boomer who cringes a bit when a Millennial posts one more cat video, this report is easy to digest.

I’m no “Social Media Ninja” (#sarcasm) but I do have to say that it is rad to be alive these days being one of the 32% of internet users who do both creating and curating content online. As a heavy social media user, it feels great to have access to the technology to create and share content, but also to access and spread the massive amount of information available online. Like Google Chrome says, “The web is what you make of it.”

Some outstanding numbers:

• 12% of online adults say they use Pinterest, which is dominated by women. Nearly a fifth of online women (19%) use Pinterest, a site that allows users to organize and share content from around the web by “pinning” photos and images into “pinboards” that are organized by categories or themes. Each “pin”, which includes a caption, links back to the site from which it originated.
• 12% of online adults say they use Instagram, which is dominated by young adults. Some 27% of the internet users between ages 18-29 use Instagram, which is a photo-sharing service built around a smartphone app that allows users to filter or tint photos they’ve taken and then share them with their networks. Facebook recently bought the service.
• 5% of online adults say they use Tumblr. Some 11% of young adults use this social blogging service that allows for easy sharing of various types of posts, including text, photos, quotes, links, music, and video.

This survey also found that:

• 66% of online adults use Facebook
• 20% use LinkedIn
• 16% use Twitter

NB. Am I the only one surprised about Tumblr demographics? I know there are a lot of us out there Tumbling…

Full Report here.