Disclaimer: I am still trying to figure out if I like Twittering. I mean, don’t get me wrong, I am developing a weird fascination for finding out what someone I don’t know and have never met but who once wrote an interesting blog post so I decided to follow him is doing right now (wow – eating pizza). Is this helping me become a better person? But I digress.

When The Pew Internet Project presents a report, I pay attention. (The Pew Internet Project is an initiative of the Pew Research Center, a non-profit “fact tank” that provides information on the issues, attitudes and trends shaping America and the world. I particularly like them because the Project is nonpartisan and takes no position on policy issues. Support for the project is provided by The Pew Charitable Trusts – so as far as I can tell, they aren’t “trying to sell me anything.”)

A few days ago, Pew presented their report on Twitter – and the findings are fascinating (note to self: must Tweet about this).

There are a lot of us out there wasting time, er, I mean, communicating via Twitter and the numbers are growing.

May be we should start thinking about how to track the impact of our Tweets a bit better. After all, this is very targeted traffic (I know because a few weeks ago we got a RT by a very prominent Twitterer and our website traffic jumped ten-fold, and we have since experienced a lingering effect).

Here are the stats:

It seems that, as of December 2008, 11% of online American adults said they used a service like Twitter.

However, unlike applications like Facebook which started with the very young and got adopted by older types later, Twitter use is not dominated by the youngest of young adults. The median age of a Twitter user is 31 vs. the median age of a MySpace user at 27, Facebook user at 26 and LinkedIn user at 40.

Here is the Tweeter users’ profile:

• 19% online adults ages 18 and 24
• 20% of online adults 25 to 34.

Twitter users are slightly more racially and ethnically diverse than is the full U.S. population, most likely because they are younger – and younger Americans are a more ethnically and racially diverse group than is the full population.

Plus, Twitter users are also slightly more likely to live in urban areas, with 35% of Twitter users living in urban areas (compared to 29% of all internet users).

Apparently, the use of Twitter is highly intertwined with the use of other social media; both blogging and social network use increase the likelihood than an individual also uses Twitter.

Twitter users are also significant consumers of blog content; 21% read someone else’s blog “yesterday” and 57% of Twitterers have ever read a blog. By comparison, 9% of those who go online but do not Twitter read someone else’s blog yesterday, and 29% have ever read a blog.

Twitter users also keep blogs at a greater rate than the overall online population; 29% of Twitter users have ever created a blog, and 8% worked on a blog “yesterday.” In contrast, 11% of internet users have created a blog and 3% are working on their blog on any given day.

Just how much time DO you spend on Twitter??

Here is “a completely useless and was created by @itcn, designed by @reese and based on a concept by @sugarrae she thought of during a lecture aimed @streko” – find out how you rank.

Oh, yes: You can follow me on Twitter (sorry, could not help myself)