Infographics are great and to the point, even if the point is less true sometimes

Dec 29, 2011 16:21 GMT  ·  By

Infographics are great. Everyone likes looking at colorful graphics and who wants to read hundreds of words just to find out some facts anyway? Infographics get to the point fast and they do it in the most pleasant way possible.

What's more, they can shine light on important issues and raise awareness of the many, many things that we should be aware of.

A great example is one infographic which uncovers Twitter's darker side.

Sure, the site is a great resource of information, a great way of interacting with interesting people, as well as keeping a tap on what's going on in the world.

But there is a price to pay and for some, the price is gruesome. For the planet, it may be even higher.

For each tweet sent, 128 tons of CO2 gets released into the atmosphere, the infographic reveals.

Not only that, but 1 hectare of forest is gone, forever, for every 18,000 tweets, if the infographic is to be believed. At that rate, Beyonce's pregnancy is responsible for 1 hectare of forest being destroyed every two seconds.

It's not just the environment that has to suffer, Twitter hits closer to home as well. One person dies for every 1,700 tweets, apparently, that's 52.7 million people per year, more than ten times as many as smoking.

As with all great infographics, this particular one comes with a viral component as well since it's part of the #BlameTwitter campaign in which the site gets the blame for the world's problems.

Of course, not all infographics are always 100 percent accurate. This one, for example, is probably closer to 0 percent accurate. That doesn't make it any less interesting. It was created by CableTV.com for an infographics design contest. There's no word on whether it won yet.