Authors: Eszter Hargittai and Eden Litt

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Citation: Hargittai, E. & Litt, E. (2011). The Tweet Smell of Celebrity Success: Explaining Variation in Twitter Adoption among a Diverse Group of Young Adults. New Media & Society. 13(5):824-842.

Abstract

What motivates young adults to start using the popular microblogging site Twitter? Can we identify any systematic patterns of adoption or is use of the service randomly distributed among Internet users of this demographic? Drawing on unique longitudinal data surveying 505 diverse young American adults about their Internet uses at two points in time (2009, 2010), this paper looks at what explains the uptake of Twitter during the year when the site saw considerable increase in use. We find that African Americans are more likely to use the service, as are those with higher Internet skills. Results also suggest that interest in celebrity and entertainment news is a significant predictor of Twitter use mediating the effect of race. In contrast, interest in local and national news, international news, and politics shows no relationship to Twitter adoption in this population segment.

Keywords: Twitter, celebrities, adoption, diffusion, race, African Americans, interests, longitudinal, social media, young adults

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