Pew Internet Technology & Social Networks Summary
2255 adults over the age of 18 were surveyed. Should you require the full version, here's a link to the complete85 page report in downloadable PDF [Adobe] format.“There is considerable variance in the way people use various social networking sites: 52% of Facebook users and 33% of Twitter users engage with the platform daily, while only 7% of MySpace and 6% of LinkedIn users do the same.”
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...and going up with each passing year. Those 35 year olds were 25 back in 2001. I read someplace else where the tweens and young teens have gravitated about 90% to using smartphones in place of computers.I can tell you this: I still have readers here on the blog who access it via dial-up. Some of these netizens are in North America, some are in other lands. I have readers checking in from place like the Philippines via smartphone, so I try to keep every channel, every line of possible communication OPEN and as easily accessible as possible. That's why I always want to know if anyone has a problem reahing my blog. There is always a workaround solution!
I haven't been on my MySpace page in digital eons!I'm most active these days on twitter, facebook, tumblr and LinkedIn, in that order (aside from blogging, which I don't lump into the 'social media' category - it has always been an entity of its own, despite efforts to change that).
Personally, I check in on Facebook & twitter every day. I update my blog everyday. Maybe once a week I go to LinkedIn, which I regard as an "unfinished network" of art... :)One of the most interesting segments of the survey is the number of FB friends one has who are, in reality, people you've never met. In my own case, half of my fb friends are people I have met in person, while the others are almost all professionals who I've met via my radio and blog connections.
I don't think it's "unhealthy" to make friends online, but I do believe in a good balance. I suppose if my fb wasn't a personal/professional hybrid, there wouldn't be anyone on it whom I hadn't actually met face to face.
The important lesson that can be learned from this (or any) study, is that our digital community is constantly evolving, updating and changing. But just as it grows, there are parts that remain, sometimes half-abandoned, like some of the relics on this humble weblog that date back to the early 2000's. Soon, I will cast them away as I move to a new template. I've been putting the template change off, for one reason or another, but it will come in time... eventually!
Tags: Pew Internet, Pew Internet Technology & Social Networks Summary
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