A Pew Internet and American Lifestyle study ascertained that almost 1 in every 5 American internet user tweets. Tweets are the 140 character long status updates posted on the micro-blogging site Twitter. Every day twitter attracts more and more young adults and teens to use their site for a social networking purpose by disclosing personal and business related information as status updates. This figure has jumped a percentage higher than a survey done in April, 2009 and double than that done on December, 2008.

The survey conducted on 2,253 users, age 18 & above, suggested this growth driven largely by three types of users: regular social networking service users; smartphone / mobile users; young web surfers. Also the trend of staying in touch via status updates has led to increased usage.

The survey also correlated between number of devices a person owns to connect to the internet and the chances of using twitter. Results show higher the number of devices more likely to use twitter-esque services.

The report also showed the popularity of the site in different age groups. No surprises here, when results showed popularity lagging in the age groups above 45. Also the likelihood of a person using twitter increases if he also uses other social networking sites.

Twitter’s popularity over Facebook, another social networking site, with more than 300 million members, is the ability to send and receive status updates via text messages, which sets it apart.