Anna's 6th Post

Social networking sites have become extremely popular in the past five or so years. From Xanga, to Myspace, to Facebook and Twitter, it seems like everyone uses them at some point. They are a great way to stay in touch with friends and family far away and share pictures. A recent article explains that these sites peaked in December, although I don't understand why because that is such a busy time of the year. It claims that the time spent on social networking sites increased 82% in the past year.

The same article tells that of these types of websites, Facebook is the most popular and 67% of social networking users are on Facebook. Not surprisingly, the majority of the people on social networking sites come from the United States. Australia takes the title of most time spent on these websites though, averaging about 7 hours a month per user. Honestly, that doesn't even seem that high because i know so many college students who are probably on Facebook an hour a day. The United States spends the 2nd most amount of time on the websites.

Although it doesn't seem like that much time is being spent on these websites, it is really scary how the amount has increased in the past year. From December 2008 to December 2009, the time spent on Facebook in the United States doubled and Twitter use rose by 368%. Although I'm in full support of these websites, I think everyone needs to realize that computer interaction will never be the same as face to face interaction, and it is important to get out of the house, move around and interact.