Using social networking sites already reveals much about their users. After all, these platforms are where people share their day-to-day activities and thoughts. Twitter is one of those social networking sites. The microblogging site, boasting millions of users, is already even used to live tweet blow-by-blow accounts of important events and stories. Now, a new study has revealed that apart from stories, how one uses Twitter can also determine his income level.
The study has been done by researchers from the University of Pennsylvnia. According to a Stuff New Zealand report, the research has found that Twitter usage correlates with a user's income level. The study has seen trends that are consistent with particular income levels. For example, those who earn an average of USD $69,000 have more followers than those who earn much less than that amount.
The study also found that lesser-paid tweeters retweet content much less than the higher-paid tweeters. Tweets made by the low-income tweeters are also found to contain links in their postings more often than the high-income users. The reason behind this kind of behavior among tweeters who belong to different income brackets is unclear.
Apart from how these people use Twitter, the study has also analyzed the content of their tweets. Those who have lower incomes use Twitter for more social and personal reasons, and they are found to often include links in their postings. Users who have higher income, on the other hand, use the platform more for disseminating information.
The research team has been led by Daniel Preotiuc-Pietro of Penn's Positive Psychology Center. The team analyzed 10 million tweets from 5,191 Twitter profiles, which are publicly available. England's job code system has been used to calculate and correlate income levels to the tweets. The data have been collected in August 2014.
