Tag Archives: Facebook

Massive UK study on social networking site use

Ofcom, the “independent regulator and competition authority for the UK communications industries,” released a 63-page report today on social networking sites. I’m reading it right now, and so far, it looks to be a great mirror to research being conducted at Pew Internet on social networking sites, especially research on young people’s use of the sites.

Here are some of the big stats the report reveals:

  • 49% of children 8-17 have an online profile
  • 22% of 16+ have an online profile
  • On average adults have profiles on 1.6 sites
  • 63% of 8 to 17-year-olds with a profile use Bebo
  • 37% of 8 to 17-year-olds with profile use MySpace
  • 18% of 8 to 17-year-olds with a profile use Facebook
  • 59% of 8 to 17-year-olds use social networks to make new friends
  • 16% of parents do not know if their child’s profile is visible to all
  • 33% of parents say they set no rules for their children’s use of social networks
  • 43% of children say their parents set no rules for use of social networks

Check out a .pdf of the whole report here.

Check out some of Pew’s recent reports related to this topic here and here.

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Social networking site adoption worldwide

Here’s a great map showing which social networking sites are popular around the world, along with my observations:

1) Friendster is still popular in Indonesia, which reaffirms my belief the Indonesia is the location of Hades.

2) As per usual, France feels the need to be different that everyone else, and especially from the U.S. by using some service even I’ve never heard of. In addition, the bastards publish the map in French, as if anyone outside of France knows their language!

3) I know there are people living on Antarctica because I saw it on an episode of House, which is the end-all, be-all of fact. So why isn’t it on the map? Such discrimination against the largest continent.

(Addendum: I guess I shouldn’t hate on France too much since the map exists only because of the French. No wait, I can still hate on them. Ha!)

Mom, Dad, I’d like you to meet my new sexually confused boyfriend….

Ahh, the joys of Facebook. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: if you are dumb enough to post things you don’t want certain people to know about on a social networking site, you have to accept the consequences. If, for example, you tell your boss last minute you have to go home for a family emergency, don’t post pictures of yourself dressed like a fairy on Facebook when you know some of your coworkers can and will see them. If only we had a Darwin Award-equivalent for Internet idiocy. Sigh.

Jessica is so happy Facebook is removing “is” from status updates

It’s official. Facebook will be removing the word “is” from status updates. No longer will we be limited to passive forms of verbs when sharing our status with our friends. Now it’s all about action people! Booyah!

[UPDATE] As of Thursday, Dec. 13, and after weeks of teasing and waiting (and waiting, and waiting), the removal of “is” has finally become a reality. Thanks, Facebook. I know you’ve had a few other things going on lately with petitions against you, threats of lawsuits, and your CEO making dumb comments. I’m glad you still managed to take the time out to remove those two little letters. It must have been a struggle, but I really appreciate it.