65% of online adults use social networking sites

Overview

Fully 65% of adult internet users now say they use a social networking site like MySpace, Facebook or LinkedIn, up from 61% one year ago. This marks the first time in Pew Internet surveys that 50% of all adults use social networking sites.

The frequency of social networking site usage among young adult internet users under age 30 was stable over the last year – 61% of online Americans in that age cohort now use social networking sites on a typical day, compared with 60% one year ago. However, among the Boomer-aged segment of internet users ages 50-64, social networking site usage on a typical day grew a significant 60% (from 20% to 32%).

“The graying of social networking sites continues, but the oldest users are still far less likely to be making regular use of these tools,” said Mary Madden, Senior Research Specialist and co-author of the report. “While seniors are testing the waters, many Baby Boomers are beginning to make a trip to the social media pool part of their daily routine.”

In a separate question, when social networking users were asked for one word to describe their experiences using social networking sites, “good” was the most common response (as seen in this word cloud). Overall, positive responses far outweighed the negative and neutral words that were associated with social networking sites (more than half of the respondents used positive terms). Users repeatedly described their experiences as “fun,” “great,” “interesting” and “convenient.” Less common were superlatives such as “astounding,” “necessity,” and “empowering.”

About the Survey

These findings come from national survey findings from a poll conducted on landline and cell phones, in English and Spanish, between April 26 and May 22, 2011 among 2,277 adults (age 18 and older). The margin of error among the internet users is +/- 3.7 percentage points. Read more in the report’s methodology section.

Share and Enjoy

Are social networking sites turning teens into substance abusers?

(Credit:
istockphoto)

(CBS) Is social networking turning America’s youth into substance abusers?

Teens who use Facebook and other social networking sites on a daily basis are three times as likely to drink alcohol, twice as likely to use marijuana, and five times more likely to smoke tobacco than teens who don’t frequent the sites.

“The findings in this year’s survey should strike Facebook fear into the hearts of parents of young children and drive home the need for parents to give their children the will and skill to keep their heads above the water of the corrupting cultural currents their children must navigate,” study author Joseph A. Califano, Jr., founder and chairman of Columbia University’s National Center on Addiction and Substance abuse, said in a written statement.

Seventy percent of teens spend time on these sites every day, according to the survey. That’s 17 million 12- to 17- year-olds.

According to Califano, looking at pictures of teens getting drunk, using drugs, and passing out contributes to this risky behavior. Compared to teens who never saw these images on social networking sites, picture viewers where three times more likely to drink alcohol, four times more likely to smoke pot, and three to four times more able to obtain marijuana and illegal prescription drugs.

“Continuing to provide the electronic vehicle for transmitting such images constitutes electronic child abuse,” according to Califano.

The study also looked at how television contributes to teen’s risky habits.

Not surprisingly, watching Snooki and the gang get sauced week-after-week may be affecting teen viewers. The survey found one-third watch shows like “Jersey Shore,” “Teen Mom,” and teen dramas like “Gossip Girl.” Compared to teens that don’t watch this suggestive programming, these 12- to 17-year-olds are almost twice as likely to drink and use marijuana.

“They see these images and there are no moral or educational statements accompanying them, so teens may be left with the impression that this is what the real world is about and that everybody is doing it, so it is OK,” Dr. Andres Huberman, medical director at North Shore Long Island Jewish Hospitals’ project outreach in West Hempstead, N.Y., told WebMD.

Should parents curb their kids social networking use? If the survey results are any indication, they haven’t been. Nearly 90 percent of parents surveyed as part of the study said they didn’t think social networking sites would make their kids more likely to drink or do drugs.

Califano told WebMD, “It is a phenomenal assault on public health that we subject teens to pictures of drugs, alcohol, or teens being drunk or passed out on the Internet, in films, and on TV shows that are suggestive and glorify drinking and drugging.”

Do you agree?

Share and Enjoy