What’s your connectivity personality? Are you a toe-dipper, a frequent commenter, or a content creator?

A new study by Broadcom Corporation found seven distinct connectivity personality types by classifying how people in the United States use technology to connect with each other.

The research discovered three kinds of connectors among U.S. adults:

• Commenters, who use technology primarily as a tool to stay in touch, were the largest group, accounting for 62 percent of Americans.
• Creators, who produce new content, were the smallest group, at 16 percent.
• Consumers, who receive information and shy away from sharing their own thoughts, accounted for 21 percent of the population.

Broadcom then compared the three types of connectors with levels of connectivity (high or low) to come up with the seven “personalities.”

The most common personality (35 percent of the population) was “live wire”—commenters with a high connectivity level. Members of this group are most likely to be female millennials (between the ages of 18 and 31), who use technology to keep up with family and friends.

Twenty-seven percent of the population qualified as “toe-dippers”—commenters with low connectivity. These users are most likely retired males, 48 years and older. Only a quarter of toe-dippers use a smartphone, and they use Facebook and YouTube as their primary means of social media communication.

The most connected group—the “always-on” types, accounting for 8 percent of the population—are more likely to experience “withdrawal symptoms” if they lose their phones or internet connections. Typically women between the ages of 18 and 47, they are more likely to tell their friends and family what they are doing rather than hear about what their friends and family are doing, and they have a preference for screen time over face time.

Only 2 percent of the population classified as “never-minders.” They are apprehensive about technology and tend to avoid communicating via phone, text, email, and social media.

What does all this mean in a larger sense? Regardless of their connectivity levels, more than half the U.S. population is connecting with others through social media, the researchers said.

And why do we do it? Because we know someone, as Nielsen’s 2012 Social Media Report recently discovered.

Is your association doing a good job staying in touch with members of all connectivity types?

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