Lenhart, Amanda, Kristen Purcell, Aaron Smith, & Kathryn Zickuhr. (2010). Social media and young adults. Pew Research Center. Retrieved May 1, 2011 at http://www.pewinternet.org/Reports/2010/Social-Media-and-Young-Adults.aspx

This Pew report chronicles several notable trends in the use of social media by age. Blogging amongst teens has decreased, and Facebook use is up, suggesting a shift in social media use from blogging to Facebook. Facebook lacks a blogging application. Blogging by over thirty-year-olds increased slightly, from 7% of adults blogging in 2006 to 11% in 2009. Teen rates during the same period dropped from 15% to 14%. Teens have been extremely slow adopters of Twitter, with only 8% using the micro-blogging application, while adults have embraced it. Overall, nearly three quarters of teens and young adults use social network sites, with Facebook being the preferred application.

The report likely has a varied audience -- marketers wish to know what social networks to use to target teens. Media professionals wish to know what ways are best to communicate to their audience and attract individuals to read, watch, or listen to their product. The overall purpose of the survey, according to Pew, was a general analysis of the attitudes of the Millennial Generation. The data was collected from a 2009 Internet use survey, conducted from June to September, of 800 adolescents ages 12 to 17. Adult data was derived from surveys of 2,253 over-eighteen-year-olds during the same time frame. Pew also notes that data from other surveys conducted by the organization was used. Figures in the article were reported in a cool, nonjudgmental, factual manner, and mainly involved comparing the data between the two groups.