[scott_s]

One 15-year-old writes about his friends, and dozens of writers mistake it for actual data.

In case my point is not clear: we don't actually know the demographic break-down of who uses social internet sites like Twitter and Facebook. At least, I don't, and I've never read anyone cite any studies. Consequently, this piece, and write-ups like it, are speculation.

[lacker]

Well, here's some studies.

Twitter's demographics: http://www.istrategylabs.com/twitter-2009-demographics-and-s...

Facebook's demographics: http://www.istrategylabs.com/2009-facebook-demographics-and-...

Twitter does slant older. 52% of Twitter users are over 34, whereas only 8.5% of Facebook's users are over 34.

[tokenadult]

Yes, this is an opinion piece, not based on any particular evidence, not the conclusion of a scientific study.

[scott_s]

Opinion pieces are fine, as long as they explicitly state the status of the premise that they start from. In this case, the premise he starts from is "most users of social internet sites are not teenagers." Then the opinion part of the piece tries to explain why that is.

My complaint is that there's no evidence for his premise. In other words, he's trying to explain something that might not be true in the first place. I worry that he, and his readers, don't know the distinction.