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Fri, 10/09/2009 - 20:26 — Andrew
| How Addicting is Social Media? |
| Do you tweet while driving? How about on vacation, or at work? Ever wonder how much time others are spending tapping away on their mobile phone, texting a friend, checking in on Facebook, posting a tweet on Twitter, or using any of the many social media services?
A recent Gadgetology study by consumer electronics shopping site, Retrevo.com went looking for answers on how much control social media has on peoples’ lives. We weren’t entirely surprised to learn how addictive social media has become especially among the 35 and younger crowd. We're no social psychologists but it looks like a whole generation (or two) is at risk of spending so much time texting, checking Facebook, using Twitter and other mobile social media services as to risk becoming addicted.
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| How Many Times a Day? |
If you feel guilty for checking in on Facebook or Twitter a few times a day, don’t worry, it’s normal  behavior, according to Retrevo's study, most people check Facebook and Twitter a couple of times a day. However, when we looked at the under 35 year olds we were concerned to see 27% of them checking Facebook more than 10 times a day. Could this be a sign of a growing addiction to social media?
How many times a day do you check Facebook? |
| Everywhere You Go? |
| We asked our sample of gadget-savvy online individuals how much they used social media in various settings. Turns out there is a big difference between those 35 and younger and those older than 35. The older crowd indicated they spend a reasonable amount of time checking in on social media services while the younger set spends what seems like an awful lot of hours texting, and checking in with their social media sites everywhere they are whether it's in the car, at work, on vacation, or even after sex.
Do you tweet/text/check-facebook often? |
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| The Big Enablers |
If you want to point a finger at one of the big causes of this wave of social media addiction look no  further than smartphones and other mobile devices. In the Gadgetology study only 19% of the older set (35+) use a phone as the preferred device for social media services with 81% preferring instead a desktop or laptop computer. Over on the other side of the generation gap we found 46% of those younger than 35 indicating their preference for a mobile device for all things social media.
What is your preferred device for checking facebook? |
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| Twitter Brings out the Worst |
Not only are mobile devices to blame but Twitter appears to be a worse influence than Facebook.  Among respondents under age 35, 27% of those who use Facebook said they check it more than 10 times a day compared to 39% of Twitter users checking in on Twitter more than 10 times a day.
Percentage of respondents under age 35 who check more than 10 times a day. |
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| Social Media After Sex |
| By the way, if you do tweet after sex, you’re in good company as we found 36% of people under the age of 35 often use Facebook or Twitter after sex. Moreover men are twice as likely to exhibit this behavior than women and if you’re an iPhone owner you’re three times more likely to go social media after you know what than Blackberry owners. |
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| Use Retrevo Before, During, and After |
| No, not after that, but seriously, before you buy a gadget, read the “real-time” review to learn what to buy, during your ownership of your gadget use Retrevo in case you need a manual or help, and after you own a gadget see what new and cool gadgets have come along since you bought your previous one. |
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| About the Gadgetology Report |
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The Retrevo Gadgetology Report is an ongoing study of people and electronics from Retrevo, the consumer electronics shopping site.
The data for this report came from a study of online individuals (non-Retrevo customers) conducted by an independent panel. The sample size was 771 distributed across gender, age, income and location in the United States. The responses have a confidence interval of 2.8% at a 95% confidence level. |
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Comments
Interesting...
Of course it's a good teaser that so many people goes online in the social medias after sex. And interesting also!
Maybe in a couple of years we will hear that some people are dependent of social medias - in a way like gamlers and shopoholics - crazy!
Thanks for a good article ; - )
The tweets regarding this blog post
...referenced the tweeting after sex. I remember growing up hearing that teens and college students were having sex with rock and roll going, so it must be the music that's promoting sexual behavior. But everything that demographic DID was with music going. The same with tweeting---whenever you tweet it follows SOMEthing. Like texting---may people check it contstantly, including, I'm sure, after sex, but it's just that after some time away from the phone (or a computer), active social media users check to see if they've missed something. No relation, however, to the activity that preceded. IMHO. Thanks for the post.
Searchng options since DVD Recorders are in $$STARS$$
Hello,
Not sure how to inquire for what I seek right now. First, I can settle for something less than 1080 pixel HD so long as it is decently viewable so what kind of combination of stuff do I use to get some ability to record programs I want to record. I knew this push to HD was a gimmick to hurt ordinary citizens in the long run so what can we do until things do come down? I just signed up with AT&T for their version of Direct TV/Cablevision, etc. because it is the best deal out there. I did make it clear I would not sign any deal with anyone requiring a one or two year contract and would not agree to any "Rental" of some device set up in my home: Swear this is true and AT&T came through. I have stuck with AT&T for quite a few years now and have not been disappointed. Maybe they are just rewarding good customers but I refused their option first of Direct TV and that is when they came up with another option that I finally agreed to. So, back to my problem -- anyone have some good suggestions for me?
Respectfully,
Campbell