There appears to be some empirical evidence to back up or parallel some of the ideas and thoughts that Tom has been blogging about over the last couple of weeks with regard to the level of growth that Facebook is experiencing.

According to the most recent report from Pew Internet “Three quarters of online economic users go online to relax and take their minds off the recession”. Though this report didn't target Facebook, it appears from the numbers that this is possibly the specific destination that they have for that activity. It reports that 52% of the 18-29 year old demo of “economic online users” played games during the period surveyed. There was also a continuing high level of engagement from all users in posting and consuming video content, music and blogs. Pew defines 69% of Americans as falling into their definition of an “economic online user”.

They say that under 30 year olds are the most likely to use the Internet as a diversion, but that other demographic groups are also very active.

Other interesting facts are that household income and race are not determinant factors in Internet use. And regardless of whether people have been personally impacted by the recession they still engage on line.

My conclusion, though not stated in the survey is this: the Internet is now such an integral part of people's lives that they treat it not as a utility but as an extension of themselves. This sets the Internet's offerings apart from TV, movies, and other passive entertainments.

We are now truly experiencing the “Age Of Engagement”.

This entry was posted on September 18, 2009 at 7:16 am. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

Posted in Main Page by Chris Gilbey No Comments Yet