My mobile phone died last week. It decided it didn’t like the system upgrade it was receiving, so it took itself out of circulation. In the process, it took me out of circulation as far as my social networking life was concerned. I could no longer check in on Foursquare, post photos on Instagram, or follow my friends’ fun times on Facebook. And let’s not even mention how all those cleared Candy Crush levels are gone, gone, gone. First-world problems, I know.
You may think that what I just described is a young person’s issue, but it’s not. According to the Pew Research Social Media Update 2013 report, 73 percent of online adults now use a social networking site.
“Facebook is the dominant social networking platform in the number of users, but a striking number of users are now diversifying onto other platforms,” the report said. “Some 42 percent of online adults now use multiple social networking sites. In addition, Instagram users are nearly as likely as Facebook users to check in to the site on a daily basis.”
The report also found that Facebook has high levels of engagement among its users.
“[Sixty-three percent] of Facebook users visit the site at least once a day, with 40 percent doing so multiple times throughout the day,” the report said. “Instagram and Twitter have a significantly smaller number of users than Facebook does, but users of these sites also tend to visit them frequently. Some 57 percent of Instagram users visit the site at least once a day (with 35 percent doing so multiple times per day), and 46 percent of Twitter users are daily visitors (with 29 percent visiting multiple times per day).”
Do you use a social networking site? Which one(s)? How often do you visit the site(s)? Please let us know in the comments.
(Image: Pew Research)
