You may have read that Social Networks are now more popular than email.  It’s hard to believe – seems we all have so much email to deal with, how can Facebook and the like be more popular than email.  But apparently a new report by Nielsen claims that Social Networks and blogs are now the fourth most popular online activity. 

And Social Networks are not just for kids any more. In fact Facebook’s biggest growth has been coming from people aged 35-49 – hardly the college kid demographics that launched the popular site.

Perhaps what was of most interest is that time spent on Social Networks and blogs is growing at over 3x the rate of overall Internet growth. What are all these people doing – catching up, finding old boyfriends and girlfriends? Looking for a job? Posting pictures of themselves on their travels and of their family? Poking? Who has the time? 

A lot of people apparently – 45 billion minutes between December 2007 and December 2008 was spent on Member Community sites!!

So as a final thought, as it is apparent we are all spending time on these social networks, when you do poke a friend use it sparingly…it can be considered a little irritating (or perverse if you over do it). Wall to wall is pretty public so remember that – you can always send a message as opposed to posting your back and forth commentary for multitudes to read, and watch who you let become your friend.  If you don’t recognize them learn more before you agree. If you do agree, and then change your mind, you can always delete them as a friend and no message will be sent to them.