Report: U.S. Social Network Use Quadrupled in Past 4 Years

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on January 28, 2009 - 7:19am.

Washington - The share of adult U.S. Internet users who maintain a profile on an online social network has more than quadrupled in the past four years, from 8% in 2005 to 35% now, according to a report from the Pew Internet & American Life Project.

While adults may outnumber teens on social networks, a larger percentage of online teens overall (65%) have a social network profile.

Just 7% of online adults 65 and older use social networks.

The Pew study found that most use social networks for personal rather than professional purposes, to connect with people they already know, and many maintain multiple profiles on different sites.

Additionally, 60% of adult social network users restrict access to their profiles so that only their friends may view them, while 58% restrict access to at least certain content within their profiles.