Much debate exists regarding what an active user is on the multitude of virtual communities. Facebook has defined an active account as one that logs in at least once a month.
Facebook reached the 1 billion mark in October of 2012. Many other well known (and not so well known) virtual communities are in this 100+ million club including Skype, Twitter, Google+, and LinkedIn.
Over 50% of the world population is under 30 y.o. and social networking now accounts for 22% of all time spent online in the US.
What happens in Vegas stays on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Flickr…
Are you helping these stats?
Yup, I’m on numerous social media networking sites daily. With so many news, it’s definitely hard to keep up on what’s happening if you aren’t online these days.
I think a number like a billion is just good PR but of course Facebook is big beyond belief.
When you consider how many people there are (maybe a bit less than a billion) you have to ask yourself how they manage to keep using it so smooth all over the world. What power, organization and technology has to stay behind that!
Bah, I do contribute in the statistics of all the virtual communities mentioned. I would have a different definition of activity though. I’m mostly inactive in all of those but I do keep up regularly with Facebook just to keep in touch with friends and relatives.
Yes, I am helping the stats. I am on several of these sites.
I spend the most time on Twitter. Checking out the trending topics is crucial for me as I blog about current news and entertainment stories. It’s a good way to find links to the most current articles and videos, virtually in real time.
I also appreciate being able to see how people on Twitter are reacting to trending stories and breaking news. I would admit it is a bit addicting in fact.
I was never as enthusiastic about Facebook, but I am among the billion. I do enjoy keeping up with various fan pages for organizations and causes I have a passion for. I also like finding groups to join in which I can find common ground with people.
I quite like the line at the end. Short article but sweet. Aren’t there other really big communities that people just haven’t heard of? Like a friend of mine is a big fan of something called “Gaia online” which is a game (I think) and it apparently has the biggest forum in the world.
Yes, there are some very large social networking sites in China.
I saw this article not too long which is a brief rundown of several of the biggest social networking sites in China, including QQ which has almost 800 million users and Qzone which has more than 500 million users.
This are huge numbers!
http://money.cnn.com/gallery/technology/2012/09/10/china-social-media.fortune/index.html
From the listed, I am only of Facebook, Skype and Twitter – although my presense on Twitter is quite passive. I just let different sites like Goodreads tweet from my profile, but I would like to get more active there in the future. I am not a fan of Google+ . I’ve been blogging for years using Google’s platform Blogger and lately I see some annoying changes that rush people to make themselves profiles on Google + and making usual commenting and following harder.
I’m definitely helping those stats. I’m on all sites you listed and active on most of them as well.
It’s truly amazing how such a huge chunk of the population and more importantly internet population is a part of these networks. Not a small number by any measure.
I can only imagine what the number will be in a few years.
It is weird that people are living life through screens. A lot of people hardly ever leave the house these days. You can find work from your PC. You can socialize on the PC. You can compete against others on the PC. Once we have 3d printers you’ll be able to print food from your pc/printer. Weird times that we are living in.
I’m on a lot of social media sites but I rarely talk to anyone in the real world. I have thousands of friends, but I often spend my Fridays alone watching the Walking Dead. Still, it’s great for business so that is good!
That is actually really unhealthy, Scott. You should get off of these screens and develop real relationships. Were you alive before the Internet was mainstream? I am happy that I was born in the early 1980’s. It is a blessing to have seen life before all of this technology took over. You should read the Progress Paradox by Greg Easterbrook. He writes about how our lives are getting worse as technology improves.
I really like the social media because they do a lot for writers of any level. For beginners, writing for the web can help land jobs and side jobs. For student writers, resources are always available and mostly students look for scholarships and grants through online means, networking with funders, investors and other student writers. For old writers with some concern for inner logic, the social media is a way to discover the golden tickets to their next gig.
Those are some staggering statistics that are continually growing from year to year, as the internet continues to grow stronger and evolve the way we communicate with others and entertain ourselves. Who would have thought years ago that Facebook would spawn such an astronomical 1 billion+ following online that led to the creation of other large, well known entities on the net? Looking back, it’s amazing to see and there certainly is no slowing down this powerhouse social media train.