I have some news articles which convey some of the things which will become important in our social networked future. The following article presents some statistical inferences to show that 96% of Americans under 50 (presumably over 13 too…the youngest you can ‘legally’ join Facebook) are already on Facebook!
This implies a number of interesting things…maybe the obvious point is that Facebook may be nearing market saturation in the continental US, implying that there is still room or a lot of growth in the rest of the world.
In this regard, I have seen predictions that Facebook will surpass 1 Billion users in 2012 (i.e. in less than 1 year from now!!). The current tally is a bit over 700 million users worldwide…
Numbers like this showcase the growing impact and power of Facebook (it is considered one of the ‘big 4’ online heavy weights, along with Google, Apple, and Amazon.com …even now). This might be an interesting place to consider that Microsoft was considered to be the biggest player…only a couple years ago…
This gives me the final question (or premise) to consider…that all of these pieces of information about Facebook may be more volatile that we would expect.
The next article I found is a rather troublesome one (for me…a reader). It seems that a study was made in the London area regarding how many books are in the home of typical school students. The result is that 30% of homes don’t have a book in the house!
I wonder whether this statistic in London would pass an equivalent study made in any major US city…
This also implies a number of seemingly obvious quesi9tons, such as:
As an assertion, is reading books a good thing?
If you think that this is valid, how many books do you read…on a monthly basis?
How much time do you spend reading…versus watching TV, or engaging in ‘social networking’ online?
Report: 96% of Americans under 50 are on Facebook
http://thenextweb.com/facebook/2011/05/31/report-96-of-americans-under-50-are-on-facebook
In a shocking report, a study executed by the Bank of America (BofA) indicates that some 96% of Americans under the age of 50 use Facebook.
Of course, Facebook has a rule that no one under the age of 13 can use its service, so it could be assumed that either BofA only interviewed persons over the age of 13, or that the company adapted its data to weed out any youngsters.
On the other side of the coin, there are millions upon millions of underage Facebook users, according to Consumer Reports, opening the door to the possibility that BofA’s data needed no correction.
That aside, what the study reveals is far more important than the hot statistic that it produced: Facebook is racing towards market saturation in the United States. If you were looking for a simple way to show the difference between Facebook and its smaller (albeit quite different) rival Twitter, this is it.
Three in 10 households do not contain a book
http://www.thebookseller.com/news/three-10-households-do-not-contain-book.html
Three in 10 children live in households that do not contain a single book, according to a new survey.
Both the Daily Mail and Evening Standard reported on figures from the National Literacy Trust. The Mail reported the study found almost 40% of those aged eight to 17 live in homes with fewer than 10 books. However, 85% of those aged eight to 15 own a games console and 81% have a mobile phone.
The Evening Standard focused on results from London, which revealed one in three children do not have a book of their own at home. The paper is publishing a week of articles focusing on illiteracy in the capital.
Former Ofsted director Sir Jim Rose, author of several reports on literacy, says: "We are in serious trouble. We have entered the era of the Argos catalogue family, those with no books of their own at home. We need to do something urgently. It is a responsibility we cannot afford to shirk."
