How Addicted Are We To Social Media

According to a new survey, 48 percent of social media users check or update Facebook and/or Twitter after they go to bed and 56 percent feel compelled to check Facebook at least once a day.
Then there’s the 7 percent of people who said they wouldn’t mind being interrupted during sex by an electronic message.
Those are some of the results of a survey of 1,000 people by Retrevo Inc., a Sunnyvale company that runs a consumer electronics shopping site.

“When almost half of social media users say they check Facebook or Twitter sometime during the night or when they first wake up, you have to wonder if these people aren’t suffering from some sort of addiction to social media,” Andrew Eisner, Retrevo’s director of community and content, said in a blog post.

As The Chronicle detailed in stories on tech addiction in November, Retrevo previously found that 36 percent of people ages 35 and younger said they often used Facebook or Twitter after sex, with men twice as likely to tweet or post Facebook updates after sex.

In the new survey, more than 40 percent said they don’t mind being interrupted for a text message, even during a meal. And 7 percent “said they’d even check out a message during an intimate moment,” Eisner said.
Meanwhile, 18 percent of those under 25, and 11 percent over 25, said they can’t stay away from Facebook for more than a couple of hours without checking.

And 61 percent under 25, and 55 percent over 25, check Facebook at least once daily.

Also, 28 percent of iPhone owners check or update Twitter before they get out of bed in the morning. And 26 percent check or tweet before they turn on their TV. That leads to the 23 percent who rely on Twitter for their morning news.

“Could we be witnessing the first signs of social media services beginning to replace ‘Good Morning America’ as the source for what’s going on in the world? Can they also provide more stimulation than a morning cup of coffee?” Eisner said.

Thanks to Benny Evangelista for finding these facts.