Roughly two thirds (67%) of social media users say that staying in touch with current friends and family members is a major reason they use social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, MySpace or LinkedIn; about half say they use these sites to reconnect with old friends.
Those who say that keeping up with family members is a major consideration in their use of social networking sites are a demographically diverse group — there are no dominant trends on this question regarding age, income, education, race/ethnicity, parental status or place of residence. The most statistically significant factor on this question is gender, as female social media users are more likely than male users to cite family connections as a major reason for using these sites (72% vs. 55%).