Social Networking - A Few Stats by David Winfield

Ever since we launched the Digital Public blog, we have been espousing the virtues of social networking. From revolutionary applications to inspirational evangelists. From Twitterers to bloggers to the releasing of previously guarded government info straight into the hands of software developers to make of what they will. It seems the brave new world is upon us, but just how much of it is hype?

Understandably, with as many articles detailing the revolution as there are revolutionaries, discerning between fact and fiction can be a challenge, so we thought we'd take this opportunity to bring you a few interesting statistics:

Following research recently undertaken by telecommunications company, Vodaphone UK into the UK's social networking activity, they say that more than half the population have admitted to being 'hooked to social networking'. That's not just mild usage, that's hooked!

They claim 60% of Britons admitted to regularly using social networking sites such as Facebook, Bebo and Twitter and a further 30% said they 'needed' to access the sites each and every day.

70% of all British women use social networks, compared to 50% of men, but men are 10% more likely to access social networks when on the move.

Facebook is most popular with women, with men more likely to use MySpace. Twitter, however, is split equally between both men and women.

The survey also revealed that more than 45% of mobile phone users access the internet via their mobile with one in 10 saying that 'not being able to access social networking sites on the move would ruin their day'.

So, what does all this tell us? That social networking is absolutely not a fad, it's becoming a way of life and is clearly here to stay for a very long time to come.