Study: 43% of Online Americans Addicted to Social Networking
First, some 66% of online Americans use social networking sites today, up from just 20% in 2007. This has been covered a lot before. However, what's notable is that it's an increasingly additive activity - 43% visit multiple times each day.
Second, social networking is largely synonymous with Facebook. This doesn't bode well for others that are positioning themselves as a social network since it could confuse consumers. (Since it does not require mutual friending, Twitter to me really isn't a social network but a continuous public communications channel.)
Third, social networking is largely viewed as a way to connect with friends, not co-workers or business partners. This may show that people are splitting up their personal/professional networks. This was something LinkedIn CEO Jeff Weiner and I recently discussed and it flies in the face of edge cases like me who have co-mingled the two. (LinkedIn is an Edelman client.)
Last but not least, social networking appears to be more predominant in the western and mountain states, even more than in the east.
Comments 20 Comments
Graphics are easy to consume and simple to understand.
Thanks for compiling and for your POV on the data.
Keep up the good work!
Whether we like it or not, the integration of the real world and online world is occurring. It seems that one addiction is transfered to the next whenever we deal with some form of emerging technology from one generation to the next. Many of us do other things multiple times a day but that would not be considered addicted to those activities. Social networking in itself has become a means to go about things. Simply because I use it "multiple times a day" does in no way suggest I will go through social withdrawal if I was away from my BlackBerry or laptop for a day or two.
As an perceived "addict" and a Millennial, an age demographic would be extremely interesting to how the story changes. The vast majority of the Millennial generation are social users. Though this use might be perceived as addictive behavior, I would have to contest and argue that their is no addiction here. And that this perceived addiction is a misrepresentation of one of the biggest paradigm shifts in our history. Life will be lived by us both online and offline. I can't necessarily speak for generations before us. But for everyone else growing up after us, our use "multiple times a day" will not only grow but that addictive behavior will become a way of life. It's like anything else we do. Nothing problematic about that.
I look forward to your and everyone else's response.
-Shank
http://www.socialcreeper.com