Smartphone use among college students has almost doubled since early last year, a study by a researcher at Ball State University found.
The study confirms what has become common knowledge: cellphones are almost ubiquitous on college campuses, with 99.8 percent of students owning one or more. But in the national survey of about 500 students—which has been conducted twice a year since 2005—new details emerged on the kind of phones they own and how they use them.
So… whatcha doin’ over there on that laptop, denizens of the world? Well, according to a new study from Nielsen showing Internet usage in April 2010, 22% of the time, you’re engaging with social media.
Yeah, 22% might not seem like a mammoth percentage, but you have to take into account the fact that this finding is on a global scale. Also, a few more telling takeaways from the report:
* Currently, three quarters of Internet (Internet) users worldwide visit a social network or blog when they go online — that’s a 24% increase over last year.
* Joe Average (the international version) spends 66% more time on these sites than he did a year ago — for example, your average user spent 6 hours on these sites in April 2010, while last year he spent 3 hours, 31 minutes.
* Facebook (Facebook), YouTube and Wikipedia (Wikipedia) make an appearance among the world’s most popular brands.
We’ve seen ample proof of the burgeoning popularity of social media in the past — just two months ago, Nielsen reported similar growth — and it makes sense. Facebook has been giving Google (Google) a run for its money when it comes to traffic, and YouTube (YouTube) recently surpassed two billion views per day.
I’ve been playing around with this data visualization software known as Tableau. I created this chart by downloading data on the Seattle Mariners 2009 batting numbers and a new product that they’ve put out called, “Tableau Public.” It’s free, by the way. Check it out if you’re into this kind of thing:
