Social Media

As people in advanced economies reach the upper bounds of internet penetration, the digital divide continues to narrow between wealthy and developing countries.

YouTube, Instagram and Snapchat are the most popular online platforms among teens. Fully 95% of teens have access to a smartphone and 45% say they are online almost constantly.

At the same time, the contours of connectivity are shifting: One-in-five Americans (20%) are now ‘smartphone only’ internet users at home.

For a recent study on automated accounts and Twitter, we had to answer a fundamental question: Which accounts are bots and which accounts aren’t? Read a Q&A with Stefan Wojcik, a computational social scientist at the Center and one of the report’s authors, on how he and his colleagues navigated this question.

U.S. adults are mostly against government action that could limit people’s ability to access and publish information online. There is more support for steps by technology companies.

Predictions from experts about the future of well-being in a tech-saturated world, from @pewresearch and @ImagineInternet.

Many experts say digital life will continue to expand people’s boundaries and opportunities. Yet nearly a third think that people’s overall well-being will be more harmed than helped in coming years.

The Pew Research Center set out to better understand how many of the links being shared on Twitter are being promoted by bots rather than humans. Our analysis found that an estimated two-thirds of tweeted links to popular websites are posted by automated accounts – not human beings.

Read key findings and watch a video about our new study on how bot accounts affect the mix of content on Twitter.

An estimated two-thirds of tweeted links to popular websites are posted by automated accounts – not human beings.