Ofcom (Office of Communications) published their findings on the emergence of social networking sites in Britain. I was amazed to find how quickly social networking sites are catching on, especially among the 8-17 year old audience. Almost half of the children who have access to the Internet have their own social networking profile, while only about 22% of adult users age 16 and over have their own profile. In addition,it is not uncommon for adults to have profiles on more than one site (average is 1.6).

The report also categorizes social networkers into 5 different groups:

• Alpha Socialisers – mostly male, under 25s, who use sites in intense short bursts to flirt, meet new people and be entertained.
• Attention Seekers – mostly female, who crave attention and comments from others, often by posting photos and customising their profiles.
• Followers – males and females of all ages who join sites to keep up with what their peers are doing.
• Faithfuls – older males and females generally aged over 20, who typically use social networking sites to rekindle old friendships, often from school or university.
• Functionals – mostly older males who tend to be single-minded in using sites for a particular purpose.

I find that these definitions mostly apply to social networking sites like MySpace, where people are more inclined to be-friend total strangers. For the most part, users of Facebook (mostly college students and the generations of recent graduates) tend to use the site to stay in touch with friends and colleagues they know in real life. Also, the format of Facebook doesn’t really allow for much customization as on MySpace, thus making it harder for users to lure others by their profile’s visual appeal.

Another interesting finding from their research was the following:

“Some teenagers and adults in their early twenties reported feeling ‘addicted’ to social networking sites and were aware that their use was squeezing their study time.”

I feel that this is a growing trend, especially now, with the introduction of Facebook Chat. Once you’re logged into Facebook, you can see all the other users who are currently online. Just over the past two days, I’ve seen online counts above 60. Either the students at Cornell have very little to study (doubtful) or we’re all just getting a little too comfortable on Facebook.