The Stats: Social Media is "Good"

 According to Pew Research Center's Internet and American Life Project, 5 percent of Americans used social media sites in February of 2005. Currently, in the year 2011, 65 percent of American's are using these sites, Facebook and Twitter being among some of the most popular. That's only 6 years.
Within this 65 percent, "young women are leading the way," CNN reports in their article from August 26. A recent Pew survey discovered that 69 percent of women who are online are using social media on a regular basis, versus 60 percent of men.
Why?
According to Gina Chen via the Nieman Journalism Lab, women want to connect and build relationships, which results in their increased use of social media.
Chen says, "What do I do with my girlfriends? I sit around and chat, talk about life, build relationships. What does my husband do with his guy friends? They play golf or tennis or poker or volleyball. What is social media all about? Virtually sitting around and chatting, talking about life and building relationships." http://www.niemanlab.org/2009/10/women-use-social-media-more-than-men-whats-news-orgs-response/


I think these statistics are interesting, along with the feelings people show towards social media. When asked to describe their experiences in social media, social-media users eloquently responded with words like, "good" and a few other variances from that, including "fun" and "OK". For people that spend hours on Facebook and Twitter, communicating with others and spilling their thoughts, opinions and problems all over walls and feeds of friends, coworkers, and family, don't you think we could come up with something a little better than "good?"

http://www.cnn.com/2011/TECH/social.media/08/26/women.social.networks/index.html

http://www.pewinternet.org/Reports/2011/Social-Networking-Sites.aspx

http://pewinternet.org/Reports/2011/Social-Networking-Sites/~/media/Infographics/Report%20Infographics/2011/22%20-%20SNS%20Update/Wordle%20-%20SNS%20Responses.jpg