Real friends on Facebook

The Economist reports Facebook statistics that while the average number of Facebook friends is 120 most members communicate actively with a small, stable subset of that group i.e. a handful of real friends. There are gender differences: the average man with 120 friends responds to the postings of seven of them, the average woman to ten; men, on average, communicate actively by email or chat with four people, women with six. Looking at Facebook members with 500 friends, those numbers increase, but not hugely. So what Facebook builds is a network of casual contacts, who are tracked passively.

According to Kathleen Richardson (‘Over (net)worked’, Cambridge Alumni Magazine, No 56, Lent Term 2009, p 16-8 - no link) Facebook fits well with modern social relationships. She cites Alvin Toffler's argument in Future Shock that modern people (i.e. 1970) meet more people in the course of a week than someone in a feudal society would meet in a lifetime. Hence many relationships (e.g. with colleagues) are 'modular' i.e. limited to particular aspects of people's lives. Richardson suggests that social networking helps people manage those modular kinds of relationships:
"it does not matter if you do not interact with the vast proportion of your friends: they are there, and potentially you could."

Playmobil Security Check Point

Bizarre choice of toy scenario. Seems to have elicited some creativity in the Amazon customer reviews, e.g.:

Changed my life "I will never need to buy toothpaste again thanks to Playmobil. Not realizing this was a toy I purchased it to prepare for my interview as a TSA agent. Needless to say I aced it and have been happily viewing xrays of carry-on luggage and shoes ever since. As noted above, the free toothpaste is just icing on the cake - never expected a free lifetime supply, but who's complaining. This is a "must-have" for any aspiring TSA agent out there."

Note customers who viewed the check point also viewed Playmobil's Safe Cracker kit. I've always admired Playmobil for high quality toys that often challenge stereotypes but then, uh-oh, explored further and found the Dad with Barbecue kit!

Security Check Point via Rebekah K. on Brighton New Media List, 15 Jan.

Another stereotype shattered

According to research by Emap reported in today's Guardian, more women are buying music downloads than men. This reverses the early trend in music downloads when the market was mainly young men, downloading for listening on their PCs. Now MP3 players have made downloads useful to people who use their computers to do things, rather than simply do things on their computers.

According to the research downloads are particularly popular with women because they can sample music and make their selections without having to face the machismo of the male assistants in music shops.

Teen media literacy

This week Ofcom released a survey of young people's media use (covering children aged 8-15). Striking amongst its findings was the wider use of media among girls than boys - with the exception of interactive games. Girls aged 11-15 are more likely than boys of the same age to own a mobile phone, use the internet for communication and read newspapers and magazines. More boys than girls have TVs in their bedrooms.

See these patterns intensify as world World Cup fever sets in.