You're Spending Twice as Much Time on Facebook

Is social media a fad? Probably so. But for now, social media is enjoying explosive growth:

Spending more time on social networks and blogs? You're not alone, with the latest figures showing the number of minutes spent on social networking sites in the United States has almost doubled over the past year.

Nielsen Online, which measures Web traffic, said the number of minutes on social networks in the United States rose 83 percent in April from the same month a year ago, but found users were quick to move on and sites could quickly fall from favor.

Nielsen Online spokesman Jon Gibs said a major trend had been the continuing popularity of Facebook, which has more than 200 million active members and has become so mainstream it now hosts Pope Benedict and a list of world leaders.

Ha! The Pope!

Surprisingly, Facebook exceeds MySpace in popularity; I thought it'd be the other way around but then what do I know? I'm not on either. This site and Twitter is about all I have time for.

It's an interesting time we live in. We have communication tools available to us that no one else in human history quite had. And though many see social media as a huge time waster, it's good to see people are using it to stay connected. Nothing beats face-to-face interaction and socialization - we are social animals, after all - but when that's not available, any of the various social media seems to work just fine.