Social Networking Sites are a Time Suck
PrintHave you been on Facebook today? How about Twitter, YouTube, or any other of the scores of social networking sites scattered across the Web? Chances are you've visited at least one of them, and if Nielsen's latest stats are correct, you'll spend about six hours this month on social networking sites and blogs.
According to Nielsen, users are now spending 23 percent of their Internet time on social networking sites, a leap of 7 percentage points from this same time last year. This ranks as the biggest jump for any of Nielsen's online categories, which also include checking email, using Web portals, and playing games. And if we widen the social umbrella to also include communicating via blogs, personal email, and instant messaging, that number jumps to 36 percent.
"Despite the almost the almost unlimited nature of what you can do on the Web, nearly half of U.S. online time is spent on three activities -- social networking, playing games, and emailing," says Dave Martin, vice president of primary research at Nielsen.
Other activities, like shopping and random Web searches, haven't changed a whole lot, while watching online videos increased slightly from 3.5 percent to 3.9 percent from June 2009 to June 2010.
More like this
6
Comments
Comments are closed on this article
Keith E. Whisman
August 02, 2010 at 8:47pm
23% of the time is spent on MySpace while the other 77% of time is spent browsing internet porn with a % percent in there somewhere looking at MaximumPC.com... Or is that just me?
JohnP
August 02, 2010 at 1:43pm
Try to figure out which parts of the internet are NOT time wasters! For the curious, the internet is a fabulous playground of bits and pieces of knowlege that ebbs and flows like an ocean. The trick is not to get cuaght up into its currents and get washed away from the important stuff, like baths and eating and talking to people. Heh.
Kevin Raffay
August 02, 2010 at 12:28pm
I've found Facebook to be progressively more boring and irrelevant. All those games are huge time wasters, and I am constantly blocking FB apps. Yes, you may get a lot of user views and eyeballs, but if most people are like me, they will spend less and less time on Facebook.
PawBear
August 02, 2010 at 8:54am
6 hours a month = 12 minutes a day. Doesn't appear to be all that much for networking and blogs.
Connect with MaximumPC
Featured Content
The gang discusses the GTX 690, Trinity, Ivy Bridge, Amazon, big-box stores, MMOs,...
This month's issue
Feature
Build a PC On Any Budget
Feature
Cloud Services Showdown
How-To
Encrypt Your External Drive
Build It
Upgrade an X58 Rig
Most Commented Articles
Latest Max PC Tweets
- maximumpc: Original RickRoll Video Returns to YouTube After 24-Hour Copyright Hiatus http://t.co/MaH9Sxyy2 days 11 min ago
- maximumpc: Corsair has decided not to go forward with its $78 million IPO, citing weak equity market conditions http://t.co/A5a4DAzj2 days 20 min ago
- maximumpc: Want to work at Maximum PC? Our Online Managing Editor, Alex, is moving away, so we need a new one. http://t.co/9Z7JCh0E3 days 22 hours ago
