Black students more likely to use Twitter

EVANSTON, Ill., May 17 (UPI) -- A study of students at a Chicago university finds black freshmen are more likely to be using Twitter than white ones.

Eszter Hargittai, an associate professor of communications at Northwestern and one of the authors, said Tuesday the results also suggest college students are not as hooked on Twitter as they might be. A survey of first-year students at the University of Illinois at Chicago found 21 percent of white students and 37 percent of blacks said they use Twitter.

"This is a reality check," Hargittai said. "While Twitter certainly can be very exciting and can offer a lot of opportunities, we found that the majority of students are not using it and certain types of people are more likely to start using Twitter compared to others."

Hargittai said black students generally appear to be more interested in news of celebrities and entertainment, and students with those interests were more likely to use Twitter.

Similar surveys in 2009 and 2010 found Twitter use growing fast among students from 3.6 percent in 2009 to 17.8 percent last year.

The May 2011 issue of New Media & Society published the study online.