Can You Actually Be On Facebook Too Much?

As we have said before in previous blog posts, Facebook is the world’s largest social media networking site, with over 400 million users.  The average user in the United States is a female between the ages of 25 and 34.  From 2008 to 2009, total minutes spent on Facebook increased from 1.7 billion to 13.9 billion, an annual growth of 700%.  Currently, most Facebook users spend, on average, 7 hours a month on the social networking site, passing Google by a long shot, where most people were not even spending 2 hours a month. Though Google responded to those statistics by saying: “We may be the only people in the world who can say our goal is to have people leave our homepage as quickly as possible.” Good answer.

We’ve heard why so many people are spending less time on Google’s search engine, let’s take a look into why so many people are spending more time on Facebook.  Can there ever be a time when it’s too much- at least in Facebook’s mind?

According to many studies and blogs authored, Facebook has grown so popular because of the strong desire for people to communicate. In a 2009 survey, most Facebook users log in to maintain those relationships with people they have met offline.  According to Facebook themselves, they suggest that it gives people the power to share and make the world more open and connected.

When you are given the power to share and connect, can Facebook stop you from doing so?  The short answer is “yes”.  In fact, a message shown below can actually appear.

I’m off to check my Facebook, but be aware of the amount of communication you are doing. It may be more about quality vs. quantity.