It didn’t seem possible for Twitter to get any more popular, but it has.A recent study by Pew Research reveals a significantly higher percentage of Internet users now use Twitter or similar status-updating services since the last time the survey was commissioned.”Some 19 percent of Internet users now say they use Twitter or another service to share updates about themselves, or to see updates about others,” the Oct. 21 survey said. “This represents a significant increase over previous surveys in December 2008 and April 2009, when 11 percent of Internet users said they use a status-update service.”The findings come after a high-profile summer for Twitter — a summer some have dubbed a “Twitter revolution.”  Scores of dissenting Iranians flocked to the status updating service to get around the Iranian government’s restrictions on mass media — a time many national pundits and commentators considered a defining moment for Twitter.”The immediacy of the reports was gripping,” an editorial from The Washington Times said. “Well-developed Twitter lists showed a constant stream of situation updates and links to photos and videos, all of which painted a portrait of the developing turmoil.”The Pew survey pegged the median age for Twitter at 31 — the second lowest age of major internet social networking sites or status update services. Myspace has the youngest average age at 26.  The survey also found one important variable in how likely a person is to Tweet: whether they already use a social networking service like Facebook.”[The] data shows that Internet users who use social network sites are more likely to use Twitter or another status updating service, independent of other factors such as that group’s relative youth or propensity to go online via mobile devices,” the survey said.  Vaughn Johnson, communication disorders senior, has had a Twitter account since May. “I just got it to see what the hype was about,” she said.Vaughn said once her friends got accounts, she understood why people are attracted to Twitter. “It’s not like updating your Facebook status,” she said, adding that Twitter’s list of trending topics allows for more interesting status updates than she can get on Facebook.  Elizabeth Hood, French senior, got rid of her Twitter account, saying “it was fun at first,” but she eventually realized “it was an extra distraction she didn’t need.”  Hood said Facebook is a “necessary evil” for her — allowing the easiest way to network with her friends and members in various clubs, something Twitter can’t offer.And, Hood said, “I don’t want to follow anybody on Twitter.”____Contact Nate Monroe at [email protected]