I know that it is ironic that writing this and sharing it on a social network, but after reading the statistics I was a bit dumbfounded by the numbers. Many of us realize that social networking is at the heart and soul of our everyday lives. However, I recently came by some very interesting numbers that made quite an impression on me. A recent survey found that almost than 50 percent of us are in one way or another belonging to some sort of social network be it Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn or some other site.
This survey conducted by The Atlantic, also said that there are over 149 million Facebook users who are active and over 70 percent of them log into the site daily. These same Facebook users spend over 15 minutes a day playing the various games on the site such as FarmVille. That means over the course of a year, the average Facebook user plays over 5,000 minutes. For someone who works a full-time job, that's over two weeks.
So with all this involvement in social networking, can someone truly live without it? Obviously we have because Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn haven't always been around. However, if history tells us anything, it's that once you have crossed the "abyss" there is no turning back.
People have always been social animals. From the beginning of time we always gathered together to discuss what was or wasn't important. Social networks have just allowed us to expand our audiences. We love to hear what others have to say and have an audience to read what we have to say. Our obsession is engrained into our lives so much so that I believe the lines are blurred between reality and the internet. The average Facebook user has 229 friends. Can you seriously look at your life and name 229 people whom you either talk to face to face or on the phone? Not chatting with through Facebook or some other social network? I'm pretty social, but I would be hard pressed to come up with 229 friends, acquaintances maybe, friends probably not.
So to answer my own question about social networking, yes we can live without it. We have before; however, the obsession we have in social gathering, it is unlikely to disappear anytime soon. Unfortunately all that contact we do through Facebook, Twitter, blogs and other social media is our attempts to connect without actually connecting.