But the participants who used Twitter and Facebook were one third less likely to develop systems of depression than those who don’t use social media. The majority (53%) of Americans 65 and older use the internet regularly, and 13% of US adults age 50+ are on Twitter, according to Pew Research Center. Social Media Statistics depression elderly Facebook seniors twitter demographics University of AlabamaRegular social media use can stave off depression among older users. Cotton’s analysis include 8,000 men and women over the age of 50. The findings? MORE >>

Twitter: over 500 million users. Twitter Sees 1 Billion Tweets Every 2.5 In a recent talk at the University of Michigan , Twitter CEO Dick Costolo promised that Twitter users will be able to download a full archive of their tweets before the end of 2012. While discussing Twitter’s role in the future of global communication and democratized access to information, he also revealed some interesting Twitter statistics ( TechCrunch ). Social Media Statistics Dick Costolo social networking statistics TwitterFacebook: 1 billion active users. via  Yahoo. MORE >>

Twitter wants politicians to know that their tweets are effective. A new study from Twitter and Compete set out to answer these questions. According to Compete’s data, the average Twitter user is 68% more likely to visit a campaign donation page than the average internet user. This likelihood bumps up when Twitter users are exposed to tweets from: political handles they follow. Twitter users exposed to the political tweets listed above are 97% more likely than other Twitter users to visit an online political donation page. politics.” MORE >>

Last week, PeopleBrowsr, a social analytics company,  won a temporary restraining order preventing Twitter from terminating its long-standing access to the full firehose. At the time, Twitter said that it would vigorously defend itself based on “Contract 101″ arguments, claiming that its agreement with PeopleBrowsr gave the platform every right to terminate access. This week, however, Twitter has changed its position. Twitter’s inconsistent representations to the State and Federal Courts reinforce our case. Last week, they said this was a contracts issue. MORE >>

Twitter: over 500 million users. The #RLTM Scoreboard:  Social Networking Stats for the Week. Facebook: 955 million active users. via  CNET. via  Twopcharts. Qzone: 576 million active users. via  TechCrunch. Sina Weibo: over 300 million users. via  Bloomberg Businessweek. Renren: over 170 million users. via  iResearch iUser Tracker. LinkedIn: 174 million members. via  CNET. Google Plus: 170 million “people who have upgraded” via  Google. Tumblr: 67 million blogs. via  Tumblr. Instagram: 80 million users. via Instagram. Tagged: 20 million unique monthly users. via  Tagged. MORE >>