14 DAY TRIAL // It's not something that can't be easily observed by anyone online, but more and more people use social networking sites. In the US, more than half the population has a social network profile. Two thirds of internet users in the US visit and use sites such as MySpace, Facebook, LinkedIn and so on.
What's more, those that do use the social networking sites, do it more often than ever.
"Two-thirds of adult internet users (65%) now say they use a social networking site like MySpace, Facebook or LinkedIn, up from 61% one year ago," a Pew Internet study found.
"That’s more than double the percentage that reported social networking site usage in 2008 (29%)," it added.
Monthly stats are one thing, but the really engaged users are the ones that visit a site each day or every few days. This number is on the rise as well, even more than the number of people using social networking sites at all.
"Looking at usage on a typical day, 43% of online adults use social networking, up from 38% a year ago and just 13% in 2008," the report found.
Unsurprisingly, it's the younger users that are the most active. While the number of older users is on the rise, the younger ones, those under 30 years old, are the most engaged.
"Young adult women ages 18-29 are the power users of social networking; fully 89% of those who are online use the sites overall and 69% do so on an average day," the report also found.
What does all of this means? Well, people use social networks more than ever. This isn't groundbreaking, but the fact that so many visit these sites every day is an indicator of what the web is increasingly used for. It should be noted that social networking is still behind email and search in usage online.