• by Colin Kirkland , May 17, 2023

Elon Musk made public his intention to purchase Twitter just over one year ago. New findings from Pew Research Center reveal how adult Twitter users in the U.S. are using the platform since Musk took control in terms of frequency, patterns of usage, and focus.

It's important to note that Musk has become the center of attention around the app. Twitter users, on average, mentioned him in their tweets three times between April 14 and October 26, 2022, while Musk was in the process of acquiring the platform -- and an average of six times in the months after the sale was completed, compared to just once before Musk's takeover.

Roughly four in ten of these users have mentioned Musk in a tweet since early 2022, especially users who identify as Republican as well as Republican-leaning independents, according to Pew's recent findings.

Similar to before Twitter's Musk Era, a minority of adult Twitter users in the U.S. continue to produce the majority of the site's content, with 20% of these users producing 98% of all tweets since Musk's acquisition, with 61% of the content coming from Democrats.

However, these frequent tweeters have slowed their output since Musk's takeover. Over the past year, six in ten U.S. adults told Pew they had taken a recent break from the platform, with a quarter of these users reporting they are not likely to use Twitter a year from now.

Gender, race and ethnicity play a major role in which users are taking breaks from the site.

Among current and recent users, Pew says women are more likely than men to say they have taken time away from the platform in the past year (69% vs. 54%, respectively). Black users are more likely to do the same than their White or Hispanic counterparts (67% vs. 60% vs. 54%, respectively).

The recent analysis also shows that most users who were active before Musk's acquisition have begun tweeting much less, with these users' average tweet numbers per month dropping around 25% following the takeover.

In addition, since Musk bought Twitter, three-quarters of tweets from all U.S. adults on the site have been retweets (35%) or replies to other users (40%). Only 15% of the activity for this group are original tweets or quote tweets (9%).

Half of all tweets from Democrats and Democratic leaners on the site are retweets and replies are the most common type of tweet by Republicans and Republican leaners, which account for 61% of tweets from this group.