Everyone Uses E-mail, But Blogging Is On the Decline [STUDY]

Pew Internet has updated its data on how different generations are using the Internet for 2010, and the results clearly show that the older generations are catching up with younger Internet users, even surpassing them in some online activities.
The Milliennials – those ages 18 to 33 – are more likely to engage in many online activities than older generations, namely social networking, using online classifieds, instant messaging, playing online games, listening to music, participating in virtual worlds and reading blogs.
Users ages 34 to 45, or the Gen X, however, are more likely than Millennials to visit government websites or get their financial information online.
Compared to last year’s report, most of the activities Pew Internet has covered in its report have increased in popularity in all age groups, especially social networking, which is hardly surprising given Facebook’sFacebook stellar growth to 500 million users and beyond. Interestingly enough, blogging is not one of them, as only half as many online teens blog compared to 2006, while users ages 18 to 33 also blog less than before. Blogging did see a slight uptick among older generations (ages 33 and up), but still accounts for a relatively small number of total users.
Overall, virtual worlds and blogging aren’t very popular in any age group, which probably indicates that tools such as Facebook and TwitterTwitter – which also enables users to express themselves online – have substituted blogging for many users. E-mail, on the other hand, has become nearly ubiquitous, even among adults ages 74 or over.
To get the results, Pew Internet surveyed a sample of 2,252 U.S. adults, ages 18 and older between April 29 and May 30, 2010, while the data for teens between 12 and 17 (not included in the graphic) dates back to a survey of 800 teens, conducted June through September 2009. Check out the graphic from the report below, and read the full report here.