Social Media is Crawling with LGBT People
Published June 10, 2009 @ 07:23AM PT
Well, as a gay blogger, I can't say that I'm surprised. It turns out that a new study from Harris Interactive shows that LGBT people are way more active on social media and blogs than their straight counterparts. Does that mean its a good time to be an LGBT blogger?
Here's the stats:
- Fifty-five percent of LGBT respondents reported that they read some type of blog regularly, compared to 38% of heterosexuals;
- 55% of LGBT adults are on Facebook and 43% are members of MySpace;
- Among heterosexuals, only 46% are on Facebook and 30% are on MySpace;
- 20% of LGBT consumers reported using Twitter compared to 12% of heterosexuals;
- 23% of LGBT respondents said they were a part of professional networking site LinkedIn, compared to 13% of heterosexual adults.
Wow, so not only do we own Hollywood, but us LGBT folk also have bragging rights to the Internet, too!
Kidding, of course. But I do think it's telling that LGBT activists, consumers, respondents, or whatever you want to call your average every day Internet user, potentially use social media more than straight people. It's certainly not because LGBT people are inherently more tech savvy (you should see me try to set up a wireless network! I'd find commanding a rocket ship less daunting...). But it could be that, given the stigma that LGBT people face in the "real" world, many have been able to carve out safe, accepting, healthy communities online that foster growth.
And if that's true, that would certainly be one reasonable explanation for the higher prevalence of LGBT people in the world of social media.
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Comments (2)
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Author
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Michael is the Communications Director for the Human Rights Program at Harvard Law School, and previously was Communications Director for Pax Christi USA, a progressive Catholic human rights organization.
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Since the LGBT community is one that unfortunately faces intolerance in real-to-real interface and is one that has the LGBT rights movement, LGBT people are more tech-savvy than heterosexual people. It's the common goals for LGBT rights that they share and the inclusiveness which makes the LGBT community more likely to be on the internet. In addition, it's good that LGBT people use the internet more because the internet is a good place to surf.
Posted by Edwin Bonilla on 06/10/2009 @ 03:03PM PT
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No surprise to me at all. Cyber space is the perfect place for LGBTs. We are somehow still not totally equal and this space gives us freedom to express.
As I understand, the President Obama and his team have been and are using this Cyberspace to gain lots of momentum for his campaign in 2007 and 2008. Don't they know now who are their audiences? Don't they want to listen to their audiences a bit?
Posted by Peter Tantakarn on 06/11/2009 @ 12:21AM PT
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