Well Duh: People Who Use Social Networking Tend To Have Larger Social Circles

from the we-needed-research-for-that? dept

While I guess there are still some people who think that sitting around on your computer isn't "interacting" with other people, I would have thought that the myth that computer users are loners died off a long time ago. However, apparently we still need studies to debunk that. The latest, from Annenberg and Pew found that people who use social networks have a larger social circle than those who don't. And, no, the study didn't just count how many friends you have on Facebook, but found out from people the number of people with whom they felt comfortable talking over important issues. That number was noticeably higher for those who used modern technology more frequently. So again, even though I had thought the stereotype died off ages ago, here's a bit more evidence that being an internet geek doesn't mean you're a loner.
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Filed Under: social circles, social networks


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  1. icon
    wnyght (profile), 5 Nov 2009 @ 6:11pm

    ah, another scientific observation of the obvious

    link to this | view in thread ]

  2. icon
    Robert Ring (profile), 5 Nov 2009 @ 6:35pm

    Thank goodness they have validated my lifestyle. I can now accept myself.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  3. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 5 Nov 2009 @ 6:35pm

    In a related story, water has been proven to be wet.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  4. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 5 Nov 2009 @ 6:49pm

    Maybe the same guys can put together another study. Here's an idea:

    "Majority of people in McDonald's Drive-thru line are hungry"

    link to this | view in thread ]

  5. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 5 Nov 2009 @ 6:55pm

    In other news

    The Onion is reporting that a 17 year old honor student that was in an accident wasn't Glenn Beck.. So sad.

    http://www.theonion.com/content/video/victim_in_fatal_car_accident

    link to this | view in thread ]

  6. identicon
    Mark, 5 Nov 2009 @ 8:05pm

    It's important how to turn the online activities to real world. After all, what the screen shows is far from enough for a happy life~

    link to this | view in thread ]

  7. identicon
    Pjerky, 5 Nov 2009 @ 10:48pm

    Re:

    I recently heard that sky has been proven blue. But there are still naysayers out there.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  8. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 6 Nov 2009 @ 7:06am

    People who use social networks have a larger social circle than those who don't (use social networks).

    People who (actively) use Facebook and other social networking sites are more likely to be social people to begin with.

    People who don't actively use social networking sites have smaller or equal social circles compared to some point in the past.

    The study also says that social circles are about 1/3 smaller than they were in 1985 (four years after the first IBM PC, the year after the Mac). So the social circles of Facebookers, while larger than those of non-Facebookers, are still smaller than comparable circles 25 years ago.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  9. identicon
    Matt Fredric, 6 Nov 2009 @ 10:25am

    A Real Research Question

    How many people are involved in social networking primarily to be social, or primarily to drive business?

    Of those people, HOW MANY DARN SOCIAL NETWORKS do they belong to?

    I am really interested in your thoughts. What is YOUR reason for being social online and how many networks do you belong to?

    Matt Fredric
    Discovering my Social Identity 2.0 (Whatever that means.)

    link to this | view in thread ]

  10. identicon
    Justin, 17 Nov 2009 @ 3:33pm

    "FB User" != "Internet Geek"

    I can see where this study may prove that internet users aren't necessarily loners but it doesn't really say anything about the geek population. It does identify a painfully obvious observation (people on SOCIAL networks tend to be SOCIAL) but using that to extrapolate any conclusions regarding "Internet Geeks" doesn't really make much sense. I guess that's really just the geek in me arguing the semantics of the term though.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  11. identicon
    Planetwebfoot, 2 Dec 2009 @ 1:01pm

    Social Networking Research

    Yes, this article states the obvious, but sometimes what we think to be common sense or obvious is not necessarily true until a proper study has been conducted.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  12. identicon
    Logon, 26 Mar 2010 @ 9:50am

    Re: Social Networking Research

    Exactly! There are lots of "I believe", "I've been told" etc.. But studies like this show the "truth". Sometimes they work fine and sometimes people think that they show more that they really do..

    link to this | view in thread ]


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