Imagine a world where can't hash-tag, or post your complaint about your boss while he's yelling at you. A world where not everyone can be a stalker, just the serious, sociopathic stalkers have something to do. A world where you have to confront someone in an argument, not sit behind a computer screen and type their feelings. A world where you only have like 20 friends and not 200. A world where following someone is looked down upon and saying you got "hacked" after a couple of questionable statements will get you nowhere. If you haven't caught on to my rant yet, I'm talking of a world without social media (Facebook/Twitter).
I got thinking about this after my previous post about setting up my father's Facebook. The realization came to me when I thought, 'What would happen if there was no Facebook or Twitter anymore?'. What if the biggest thing to hit the internet since Google, suddenly disappeared? Truth is, it would probably send people into more of a frenzy than the Y2K scare 11 years ago. I can continue to rant on and on about how it would change everything but I feel these statistics will speak louder than my ramblings.
With over 500 million users, Facebook is now used by 1 in every 13 people on earth, with over 250 million of them (over 50%) who log in every day. The average user still has about 130 friends, but that should expand in 2011.48% of 18-34 year olds check Facebook when they wake up, with 28% doing so before even getting out of bed. The 35+ demographic is growing rapidly, now with over 30% of the entire Facebook user base. The core 18-24 year old segment is now growing the fastest at 74% year on year. Almost 72% of all US internet users are on now Facebook, while 70% of the entire user base is located outside of the US. Over 700 Billion minutes a month are spent on Facebook, 20 million applications are installed per day and over 250 million people interact with Facebook from outside the official website on a monthly basis, across 2 million websites. Over 200 million people access Facebook via their mobile phone. 48% of young people said they now get their news through Facebook. Meanwhile, in just 20 minutes on Facebook over 1 million links are shared, 2 million friend requests are accepted and almost 3 million messages are sent.
So as you can see or read, Facebook is much more than social media. Facebook is advertising, addictive, jobs, global, habitual, the news, mobile, and scariest of all, growing. The list could go on for the the range of uses of Facebook. From catching up on Farmville to catching up with old high school classmates. From finding the news to finding incriminating pictures of yourself (untag!). From posting business news to posting personal news (mostly too personal). Shall I continue? I'll save you, for now.
I guess my point is, if I had one, that Facebook is not going away short of the Mayans' prediction coming true. Maybe that's how it'll happen? Just kidding of course, it's much more likely to be a meteor or solar flares. Hope you enjoyed, stay tuned.
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