Most Twitter Users Are Simply Talking To Themselves, Finds Study

Do you find yourself Tweeting away all day... only to never reflect if your interaction on the platform is limited to your own self? Well, we bring some bad news. Turns out, most users on Twitter are talking to themselves, at least according to a study based in the United States.

Published on Monday by Pew Research, the study found that 25 per cent of Americans adults actively use Twitter. Out of these, 25 per cent who are the most active create 97 per cent of all content on the platform.

Allen Penton - Fotolia

Guess what? Original posts made up only 14 per cent of all posts and Tweets on the platform. At the same time, 80 per cent of all posts were simple retweets or responses to Tweets posted by other people.

Reuters

Are we talking to ourselves on Twitter?

Among the highly active Tweeters, the engagement from the rest of Twitter is vastly limited. The research claims that the 25 per cent active producers of content receive only 37 likes and a single retweet each month.

Yikes! We know! While the study only took into account American users, by extrapolation we can assume that the situation may not be too different in countries like India. For starters, why? Simply put, not everyone can become an influencer.

Also read: Scientist Begs Twitter CEO To Stop Censoring 'Uranus' As Offensive Content

Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey / Reuters

In fact, most of us are just spitting words out into a virtual vacuum and talking to ourselves. In conversation with MarketWatch, study author Aaron Smith said that "folks are kind of talking to themselves a little bit."

In addition, the study claims that highly active Tweeters are also twice as likely to experience harassment on Twitter than frequent users of the platform. The study also revealed information about how users process politics. The more you Tweet, the more politically engaged you're likely to feel, the study said.

Also read: Twitter Says Its Algorithm Amplifies Right-Wing Content And They Don't Know Why

What do you think - are we all just talking to ourselves on social media? Let us know in the comments below. For more in the world of technology and science, keep reading Indiatimes.com.

Citation

McClain, C., Widjaya, R., Rivero, G., & Smith, A. (2021, November 15). The Behaviors and Attitudes of U.S. Adults on Twitter. Pew Research Center: Internet, Science & Tech.