A nationally representative phone survey, by the Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project, finds that 46% of internet users post original photos and videos online they have created themselves, and 41% curate photos and videos they find elsewhere on the internet and post on image-sharing sites. Women are more likely than men to use Pinterest, while Instagram and Tumblr attract equal shares of men and women.
The report says that that:
The creator group is made up of those who have shared photos they have taken themselves (45% of internet users have done that) and those who have shared videos they have created themselves (18% of internet users have done that). Many of them do both of them.
The curator group is made up of those who have taken photos they found online and posted them on a site that is used for sharing images with others (35% of internet users have done that) and those who have taken videos they found online and posted them on a video-sharing site that is used for sharing videos with others (25% of internet users have done that).
This is the first time that the Pew Research Center has asked questions about Pinterest, Instagram and Tumblr, so it is not possible to compare these data to previous material. However, says the report, that it is safe to say that the rise of smartphones is a major part of the story because those phones have cameras built into them, making it easy to take and share self-made pictures online. It is also safe to say, says the report, that the rise of social media, especially YouTube and newer services like Pinterest, Instagram, and Tumblr has made curating activities easier because they are organized for easy image and video-sharing.
In an earlier phone survey of adults ages 18 and older, the Pew Internet Project found that:
This survey also found that:
Demographics of Subject Groups (% of internet users within each group) | |||||
Users | Tumblr | Creators | Curators | ||
All internet users | 12% | 12% | 5% | 46% | 41% |
Men | 5 | 11 | 4 | 45 | 38 |
Women | 19 | 12 | 7 | 48 | 45 |
Age | |||||
18-29 | 16 | 27 | 11 | 69 | 63 |
30-49 | 12 | 8 | 4 | 52 | 42 |
50-64 | 13 | 6 | 2 | 28 | 31 |
65+ | 4 | 4 | 1 | 29 | 20 |
Annual household income | |||||
Less than $30,000/yr | 11 | 8 | 6 | 46 | 50 |
$30,000-$49,999 | 8 | 14 | 6 | 50 | 48 |
$50,000-$74,999 | 16 | 9 | 2 | 51 | 40 |
$75,000+ | 12 | 16 | 3 | 44 | 29 |
Education level | |||||
High school grad or less | 8 | 8 | 3 | 40 | 39 |
Some College | 15 | 15 | 7 | 48 | 50 |
College + | 14 | 12 | 5 | 51 | 36 |
Source: Pew Research Center, August 2012 (Creators: % of internet users within each group who share either photos or videos they have taken themselves; Curators: % of internet users within each group who either take photos or videos they have found online and shared them on picture-sharing sites) |
For additional information from PEWresearch, and access to the PDF file for more charts and graphs, please visit here.