Market research group Nielsen reports on social networking’s new global footprint.  Some interesting stats emerge:

• Social networks and blogs are now 4th most popular online category – ahead of personal e-mail.  These sites account for one in every 11 minutes online.
• Facebook, which started as a service for university students, has the highest average time per visitor amongst the 75 most popular brands online worldwide.  There are now 200 million Facebook members.  The amount of time spent on Facebook increased by 566% during 2008 with an average sitting of 3 hours 10 minutes per person.

The report argues that “the staggering increase in the amount of time people are spending on these sites is changing the way people spend their time online and has ramifications for how people behave, share and interact within their normal daily lives.”

The dominance of Facebook has implications for students and teachers.  The Australian recently reported that Facebook use is harming student grades:

Researchers from the US have found that students prone to accumulating friends, uploading photographs, chatting and “poking” others on Facebook may devote as little as one hour a week to their academic work.

If that’s not a deterrent, The Guardian offers a sinister view:

I made the interesting discovery that you can’t actually leave Facebook once you have joined … Sure, you can “deactivate” your account, but you can’t scrub it out. Friends will continue to see your profile and may continue to send messages to it, which will be lost forever. The logon and password are preserved, presumably forever, and so are the cookies that identify you to Facebook - and which can be used to tie your Facebook identity into advertising sites … If there is anyone in the world who has not yet signed up to Facebook, my advice is to stay well clear. It is not a company that means its users well.

For a more scholarly perspective, check out this interview and the accompanying comments from Inside Higher Ed.

Filed under: Social Networks, Students, Technologies by Agnes Bosanquet