---
title: "Photos and Videos are Key Social Currency Online"
description: "Fully 46% of internet users post original photos and videos online and 41% curate photos and videos on image-sharing sites. Women are more likely than men to use Pinterest, while Instagram and Tumblr attract equal shares of men and women. "
date: "2012-09-13"
authors:
  - name: "Tom Rosentiel"
    job_title: "Guest Contributor"
url: "https://www.pewresearch.org/2012/09/13/photos-and-videos-are-key-social-currency-online/"
---

# Photos and Videos are Key Social Currency Online

Fully 46% of internet users post original photos and videos online they have created themselves and 41% curate photos and videos they find elsewhere on the internet and post on image-sharing sites. Women are more likely than men to use Pinterest, while Instagram and Tumblr attract equal shares of men and women.

A nationally representative phone survey by the Pew Research Center's Internet & American Life Project finds that:

- 46% of adult internet users post original photos or videos online that they themselves have created. We call them creators.
- 41% of adult internet users take photos or videos that they have found online and repost them on sites designed for sharing images with many people. We call them curators.
- Overall, 56% of internet users do at least one of the creating or curating activities we studied and 32% of internet users do both creating and curating activities.

In addition, this is the first time that the Pew Research Center's Internet & American Life Project has asked questions about Pinterest, Instagram, and Tumblr.