Contrary to popular opinion, social network users actually do have real lives.
According to a poll published yesterday by the Pew Research Centre’s Internet & American Life Project, Facebook users are more trusting, have more close friends and are more politically engaged.
The survey of 2,255 American adults found that Facebook members who use the site multiple times per day are more than three times as likely as non-internet users to feel that most people can be trusted.
People who use Facebook several times per day average nine percent more close, core ties in their overall social network than other internet users.
And Facebook users are two and a half times more likely to attend a political rally or a meeting than other internet users and users of other social networking platforms, according to the poll.
“There has been a great deal of speculation about the impact of social networking site use on people’s social lives,” Keith Hampton, the lead author of the Pew Internet report, said.
“Much of it has centred on the possibility that these sites are hurting users’ relationships and pushing them away from participating in the world,” said Hampton, an assistant professor at the University of Pennsylvania’s Annenberg School for Communication.
“We’ve found the exact opposite – that people who use sites like Facebook actually have more close relationships and are more likely to be involved in civic and political activities,” he said.
Forty-two per cent of the US adult population is using social networking sites, up from 26 per cent in 2008, the survey found, and the average age of adult users has shifted from 33 in 2008 to 38 in 2010.
Facebook, which has nearly 700 million users worldwide and nearly 160 million in the US, was the most popular social network among those surveyed and the one with which they had the most engagement.
Ninety-two per cent were on Facebook, 29 per cent were on Myspace, 18 per cent were on LinkedIn and 13 per cent used Twitter. Fifty-two per cent of Facebook users and 33 percent of Twitter users engaged with the platform daily compared with only seven percent of Myspace users and only six percent of LinkedIn users.
The average Facebook user in the sample had 229 Facebook friends with 22 per cent being friends from high school, 12 per cent extended family, 10 per cent co-workers, nine percent college friends, eight per cent immediate family, seven per cent from voluntary groups and two percent neighbours.
Thirty-one per cent of Facebook friends could not be classified. Only three percent of Facebook friends were people users had never met in person.
The average adult Facebook user was 38, the average Myspace user was 32, the average LinkedIn user was 40 and the average Twitter user was 33. Also, most people update their status less than once per week and 16 per cent have never updated their status.