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Survey: Most Use Social Media To Keep In Touch, Not To Follow Celebrities Or Find Dates

Greg Finn on November 15, 2011 at 12:54 pm

The Pew Internet & American Life project polled over 2,250 Americans to find out why exactly they use social media platforms. The results pointed to one common answer: keeping in-touch with acquaintances or reconnecting with former friends they may have lost touch with. Some of the lowest motivators include using social media to create new friends, find dating partners or follow celebrities.

Hands down, the most common reason for using social media was “Staying in touch with current friends” as 91% of respondents agreed it was a ‘minor to major’ reason they embraced social media. Following closely behind were the reasons “staying in touch with family” and “connecting with old friends you’f lost touch with” with 87% agreement and 86% agreement respectively.

The lowest motivators were “finding dating or romantic partners” and “reading comments by celebrities, athletes, or politicians”. Only 3% of respondents stated that dating was a ‘major reason’ they joined a social platform, and only 5% said following celebs was a major reason.

Some other interesting facts in the report show that middle aged users tend to see more value in using social media to connect with others around a hobby/interest and that users under the age of 50 see the most value in staying in touch with current friends. To see more data, view the entire report from Pew Internet.

About The Author

Greg Finn

Greg Finn is the Director of Marketing for Cypress North, a company that provides world-class social media and search marketing services and web & application development. He has been in the Internet marketing industry for 10+ years and specializes in Digital Marketing. You can also find Greg on Twitter (@gregfinn) or LinkedIn.