Facebook is invading your privacy, digging up all of your buried information with the new Timeline, and is full of FarmVille request and posts about what embarrassing song you’re rocking out to on Spotify. Google’s also invading your privacy, while Apple is creating a culture of sameness and overworking Chinese laborers.

Okay, I don’t really think all of that is true. But since those claims have been leveled at those respective companies, you’d think that there would be a significant amount of animosity towards them. But on the whole, Americans are quite favorable toward those big three. Especially Google.

According to a poll conducted for ABC News recently, 82% of respondents said they have a favorable opinion of Google. Only 9% reported an unfavorable view. The dichotomy is a little less-pronounced when we talk about Apple and Facebook – but favorable views are still the norm (74% and 58%, respectively).

Those are interesting figures on their own. but the striking thing about this study isn’t the favorability of those three companies – it’s the relative lack of favorability of Twitter.

So, what’s wrong with Twitter?

Well, first off it’s newer than these other companies and has yet to grow into a social powerhouse for some segments of the population. Sure, Twitter is booming in some areas of the population – in fact it’s now growing three times faster than Facebook. But as you can see, 31% of people aren’t even ready to give an opinion one way or the other about Twitter. Some Americans just don’t fully grasp the service yet.

Seniors are especially ignorant of Twitter, as 51% said they didn’t have an opinion either way on the 140-character microblogging network.

But what about that unfavorability percentage of 36%? According to the survey results, Twitter may have a young male problem as well:

There’s also a 10-point gender gap in views of Facebook, with the site seen favorably by 63 percent of women vs. 53 percent of men. Twitter’s got a similar gap, 11 points more popular among women than men, though it’s rated lower than the others among both sexes, at 39 and 28 percent, respectively.

Even among young adults, Twitter is seen favorably by just 42 percent, and unfavorably byequally as many, 43 percent. Among seniors its positive rating drops to 18 percent; while 30 percent in this group see it unfavorably. For them, apparently, tweeting is for the birds

Personally, I love Twitter as a medium for real-time information. What do you think drives this feeling about Twitter? Is it social media fatigue within some parts of the population? Let us know what you think in the comments.

[h/t The Atlantic]