The Pew Internet Project reports that, as of December 2008, 11% of online American adults said they used a service like Twitter or another service that allowed them to share updates about themselves or to see the updates of others.

The report highlights the growth of services that, by trivializing the process of posting content to the web, are expanding the scope of what gets published. 

Highlights of the research:

• Twitter and similar services have been most avidly embraced by young adults. Nearly one in five (19%) online adults ages 18 and 24 have ever used Twitter and its ilk, as have 20% of online adults 25 to 34.
• Use of these services drops off steadily after age 35 with 10% of 35 to 44 year olds and 5% of 45 to 54 year olds using Twitter.
• The decline is even more stark among older internet users; 4% of 55-64 year olds and 2% of those 65 and older use Twitter.
• The use of Twitter is highly intertwined with the use of other social media; both blogging and social network use increase the likelihood than an individual also uses Twitter. 
• Twitter users and status updaters are also a mobile bunch; as a group they are much more likely to be using wireless technologies — laptops, handhelds and cell phones — for internet access, or cell phones for text messaging.

I’ve been skeptical about Twitter’s prospects for mainstream success, because it doesn’t offer the immediate gratification of a site like YouTube or MySpace. But Pew’s research suggests that Twitter, microblogging and mobile updating are going mainstream faster than many expected. 

Do you think Twitter and microblogging in general are going to be adopted by a mainstream audience?