Social Networking has exploded in popularity over the past two years, with the percentage of Americans maintaining a profile page on one or more social sites doubling from 24% in 2008 to 48% in 2010. Even more remarkably, as social networking has entered the mainstream, it has also quickly become not just an occasional diversion but a habitual part of American life. In 2009, 18% of social networkers in America checked their sites and services several times a day. Just one year later, this figure stands at 30%, even as the total number of social networkers has grown. With both numbers growing dramatically, the actual number of Americans with "the social habit," who check their social media sites multiple times per day, has more than doubled, from approximately
18 million to 39 million.
This new report, based upon the 18th Edison Research/Arbitron Internet and Multimedia Research Series, examines these habitual social networkers, providing information on dempgraphics, status updating behaviors, mobile access and how social media has affected their consumption of other media. The data is based upon a nationally representative telephone survey of 1,753 Americans (including 371 mobile phone interviews) ages 12+ conducted in February, 2010.
