It’s Official: Social Networks Now a National Time Suck Epidemic

Time Suck

Ever since social media broke into the general lexicon, it’s become fashionable to dutifully nod in agreement when some expert or another bloviates about the stunning growth in social networking.

But a new Nielson report underscores just how big a discretionary time shift we’re witnessing. And it’s happening fast.

Consider the following:

• Three of the world’s most popular brands online are social-media related

• We spend over 110 billion minutes on social networks and blog sites (22% of all time online)
• Social network or blog sites are now visited by three-quarters of global consumers who go online (this is a first)
• The average visitor spends almost 6 hours in April 2010 versus 3 hours, 31 minutes a year ago during the same period. Looked at another way, that’s 66% more time on these sites than the previous year
• Brazil not only tops the list of teams favored to win this year’s World Cup, they also top the charts with the highest percentage (86%) of Internet consumers visiting a social network. For you real football fans – Brazil took second to Holland in a 2 – 1 final decision and is hosting the 2014 World Cup

So next time you log on to check in on your “friends” ask yourself…”Maybe I should talk to my (insert the name of the person here in the room with you) instead of mindlessly following these other people from afar.” Or you can be like 74% of Americans who go online and see what Ashton Kutcher (aka APKLUSK) is tweeting in “short, timely messages.”