UNDERSTANDING THE IMPACT OF SOCIAL NETWORKING

Hi Readers,

 "....on this planet more than 3 billion minutes are spent (or wasted) on FACEBOOK - every day!!"

Recently while browsing through the web, I came across this really interesting statistic that people are spending more than 3 billion minutes everyday on Facebook . I shared the same with a friend who almost jumped out of surprise “Really? That’s a whole lot of time being wasted”. For a moment, I felt like asking him “wasted by whom?”, but somehow managed to stop short of asking because I felt I already knew his answer – ‘the people’. It’s really amazing how predictable people become after a period. To find a more plausible explanation about the meaning of that line, I googled some additional facts and tabulated them as under - 

Total world population at the time of writing the blog 6,962,247,089
Total minutes spent per day on Facebook 3,000,000,000
Based on this…..
Scenario - % of people across the world who use Facebook	Count of people using Facebook	Average usage per day per user
100%	6,962,247,089	26 Secs per day
10%	696,224,709	4 Mins per day
1%	69,622,471	43 Mins per day

Although the 3 billion minutes appeared staggering when looked upon in isolation, it doesn't seem excessive when seen together with the information on percentage of population using Facebook. I mean the average usage of 4 mins (assuming there are about 700 million active Facebook users) can hardly be considered a matter of any significance or concern unless of course it is found that –

1.    A large proportion of the reported user base is dormant at any given time.

2.    A smaller proportion of users spend considerably longer periods than rest of the users.

3.    The content being consumed by active users is of highly obnoxious nature.

In the absence of credible data, which I feel only Facebook its associates would be privy to, it is very difficult to place a guess on the degree to which the above mentioned points have an influence on the skewness levels in average Facebook usage patterns and the resulting ‘negative’ behavioral reinforcement. What we can however do, for the purpose making at least a rough estimation of the social impact of Facebook is studying the usage patterns of a sample set of users and then identifying key positive or negative agents of likely change in social behavior of users.

Recently, for the same purpose, I enquired my friends about the key Facebook features they accessed and the time they spent on them. I also tracked my own activities on Facebook for about a week just to be sure that the results were consistent. At the end of this week long ‘jugaad’ research, the following facts came to light  -

·      Students in the age group of 14 – 21 yrs are “Heavy Users” i.e. they tend to spend time in excess of 2-3 hours. This is understandable because of the inherent need of this segment to connect to their friends for ‘feedback’ which results from the redundancy of parental guidance due to physical and psychological dissimilarities. This segment spends most of their time on following activities –

o   Chat – Single most dominant activity, but not a new phenomenon, has only served to replace other methods like phone call, SMS, or Messenger Chat.

o   Frequent Status Updates – Done in order to reach out to a larger audience than possible in a chat. New category has helped this segment to constantly get updates on other guys/gals. The importance attached to this feature generally results from peer pressure for e.g. when you are a 16-17 yr old, not knowing about what other guys/gals in the circle are up to, can be disastrous –

o   Update links to music, videos etc. – Basically to show off ones taste and invite recognition from others.

o   Frequent profile photo changes: Trying to build a desired image. Also used as an indirect tool for inviting attention of opposite sex (or in some cases, same sex).

o   Facebook games – Recognition. Used as a tool for establishing superiority, earlier was done through Cricket, other indoor or outdoor games or activities.

·       Individuals in the working age (above 21) are “Moderate Users” who generally use Facebook as a tool to reach out to past friends separated by geography or job commitments. The other characteristics of this user group are almost similar to the previous group except for the fact that these people spend far lesser time than a teenager. There is however a lot more uniformity in the content shared by this group which is starkly different from the dominance of variety in the content shared between teenagers. The propensity to attract attention of the opposite sex is not so dominant in the 21+ age group but it still counts as a important motivation for photo and status uploads, especially among Male users.

·      There is also a growing trend of married women (typically housewives) above 30-35 years of age joining Facebook mainly to, as somebody would describe it – “make amends for lost days”. Working women however don’t seem to be carrying such specific motivations for using Facebook.

Based on the above facts from  jugaad research it is clear that there are several serious behavioral issues resulting from heavy Facebook usage among the teenagers in 16-21 year age group which will emerge as time progresses. I give below an outline of some of the issues which I feel are relevant.

1.    Average verbal, analytical and emotional intelligence may be impacted due to significant reduction in time for thinking although this may not show in their grades (because grades in the Indian education system are largely impacted by memorizing power rather than reasoning ability).

2.    Desensitized attitude towards relationships may develop leading to higher incidence of teenage sex, more failed relationships in adulthood, inability to develop emotional attachment, absence of caring nature etc.

3.    Professionally, such individuals may find difficulty in working in team, will tend to be driven by short term targets, may not appreciate or adhere to authority etc.

4.    On a macro scale, socially, there are chances of higher incidences of crimes resulting from chronic desensitization like heightened usage of drugs, robbery, rape etc.  

Lastly, I want to underscore the point that Facebook per se is not bad (bad only to the extent that it jeopardizes our personal information) it provides a medium for individuals separated by geography and time bounders to interact and evolve their relationship for mutual benefit. The problem however results from the fact that heavy doses of such interactions are not conducive for a healthy social living.

YF - IThink