Are you contemplating deactivating your Twitter account? If that’s the case, you’re not alone.
Elon Musk, the Tesla CEO and the world’s richest individual, is about to take management of Twitter in a deal introduced Monday. Lots of the social media web site’s politically progressive customers aren’t too completely happy in regards to the information. In actual fact, some are threatening to depart Twitter altogether.
The influence could hit tougher in Seattle than many different components of the nation as a result of, because it seems, Twitter is kind of fashionable right here. In keeping with the latest knowledge from market-research agency Nielsen, Seattle ranks second out of 112 U.S. metro areas for the share of Twitter customers.
Surveys carried out from June 2020 to October 2021 present that 32.5% of Seattle-area adults stated they’d visited Twitter at the very least as soon as up to now 30 days. The one metro space with the next proportion was Raleigh, North Carolina.
There have been solely 13 metros the place 30% or extra of the grownup inhabitants stated they had been on Twitter. Amongst them are some areas with comparable demographics as Seattle, resembling San Francisco, Boston, Denver and Washington, D.C.
The Seattle metro space contains King, Pierce and Snohomish counties. There are almost 3.2 million individuals aged 18 and older in our metro, and a little bit over 1 million stated they’d visited Twitter up to now 30 days.
As fashionable as Twitter is in Seattle, it had lower than half the variety of guests that Fb did, based on the market-research knowledge. Three-quarters of Seattle adults stated they’d been on Fb up to now 30 days. Instagram was additionally extra fashionable than Twitter amongst Seattle-area adults, with 47% saying they’d visited the location.
It might be much less fashionable than different websites, however Twitter appears to have an outsized affect on our political and cultural discourse as a result of so many distinguished figures in politics, enterprise, media and leisure use the platform.
Twitter has come below fireplace from conservatives who say it has a left-wing bias. For instance, some level out how Twitter has restricted the posting of content material that could possibly be dangerous to Democrats. Twitter has additionally banned some high-profile conservatives from the platform, most notably former President Donald Trump.
Musk, a self-described “free speech absolutist,” says he needs Twitter to be much less restrictive. However many on the left view this as opening the floodgates to hate speech — and they’re additionally involved that Musk will reactivate Trump’s Twitter account. That’s sufficient to make some ponder deleting the app.
Knowledge reveals that Twitter has been considerably extra fashionable amongst liberals than conservatives. Nationally, adults who’re Democrats or lean Democratic are 15% extra more likely to have used Twitter up to now 30 days than those that are Republican or lean Republican, based on Nielsen.
The info additionally reveals us who makes use of Twitter within the Seattle space.
Nielsen surveyed almost 200,000 adults nationally, and greater than 2,700 within the Seattle metro space.
Twitter customers within the Seattle space skew male — round 54% of adults in our metro who stated they’ve lately used Twitter had been males; 46% had been ladies. Nationally, Twitter skews much more male than it does in Seattle.
Grownup Twitter customers, like most social media customers, are typically youthful. The median age of an grownup Twitter person within the Seattle space was 39.5 years, greater than 5 years youthful than the general median age of adults right here. Twitter customers had been half as more likely to be age 65 or older when put next with whole metro-area inhabitants. Most likely as a result of they’re youthful, Twitter customers within the Seattle had been additionally extra more likely to be single.
Forty-five p.c of Twitter customers right here had been faculty graduates, about 5 proportion factors larger than the full inhabitants. Twitter customers had been additionally extra probably than the full grownup inhabitants to work in skilled, “white-collar” occupations.
I used to be a little bit stunned to see that Twitter customers within the Seattle space had been solely barely extra liberal than the general inhabitants. About 58% of those that used Twitter stated they had been Democrats or leaned Democratic, in contrast with 56% of the full grownup inhabitants.
Possibly it’s a reminder that regardless of all of the concentrate on the political aspect of Twitter, that’s not why most individuals use the app. They go to Twitter to listen to from their favourite celebrities and musical artists, to debate sports activities and sustain with many different nonpolitical subjects. That’s not more likely to change below Twitter’s new possession.
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