Comments on: Teens Don’t Tweet, or, How to Read a Web Panel

By: An Insightful Take on Teens on Twitter | The Social Workplace

An Insightful Take on Teens on Twitter | The Social Workplace — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 14:50:20 +0000

[...] a methodology and interpretation problem. As Fred Stutzman has pointed out, there are reasons to question Nielsen’s methodology and, thus, their findings. Furthermore, the way that they present the data is misleading. If we [...]

By: Brian Sharwood

Brian Sharwood — Sun, 30 Aug 2009 03:43:13 +0000

I think some of the obsession with Twitter not being used by teens is there is a general myth that technologies are first adapted by young people and then move to older people. That’s different in the case of twitter. Reporters (and prominant bloggers) like to think they are the center of the action, and also in touch with the latest and greatest, so they find is shocking that ‘the kids’ aren’t getting it.

I blogged recently about this particular phenomenon. Twitter comes from the media, flows to PR, then to others, including, in smaller quantities, youth:
http://bit.ly/TapYQ

By: Teens use BLACKBERRIES?? « Type Seven

Teens use BLACKBERRIES?? « Type Seven — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 14:26:07 +0000

[...] This guy did a great job of breaking down the scientific short-comings of the Nielsen study. But I’d also like to know how many teens are mobile Twitter users. Maybe I’m crazy, but isn’t this kind of a big factor that’s being overlooked? [...]

By: The Fascination With Teens Not Using Twitter | Twitterrati

The Fascination With Teens Not Using Twitter | Twitterrati — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 11:01:50 +0000

[...] For an interesting look at methodologies used in online surveys and it relates to monitoring the activities of teenagers online, check out Fred Stutzman’s post. [...]

By: Do Teens Really Not Tweet?

Do Teens Really Not Tweet? — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 18:28:31 +0000

[...] Don’t Tweet; Twitter’s Growth Not Fueled By Youth” are being presented, nor the methodology used to procure [...]

By: fred

fred — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 17:54:07 +0000

Michael, The Nielsen panel doesn’t cover mobile or application-driven Tweets. They have a secondary study that they’re using to impute from, I think.

By: Michael Golrick

Michael Golrick — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 15:35:11 +0000

You say specifically: “Metering software located on client machines records the websites visited by panel members.”

This makes me ask, how do they count for cell phone/smart phone tweets? I sometimes pay attention to the source of the Tweet, and many come from unwired sources. As with the “Dewey Wins” headline, the counting mechanism could account for the inaccurate data.