Time that Friends Spend on Facebook

Della C. Henry A brief glimpse: Time that Friends Spend on Facebook February 2, 2012

Time that Friends Spend on Facebook A brief glimpse: Time that Friends Spend on Facebook Topic of Interest

What is the average amount of minutes my already registered friends spend on Facebook per day? This topic was chosen for a simple discussion question in a mathematics course but and grew into a larger issue as gender-neutralizing, bimodal trends emerged. Description of the sample All participants come from my personal Facebook friends roster, thus this is a cluster sample Each person voluntarily responded to requests posted January 9 12, 2012. 47 of 451 friends participated (37 women; 10 men) or 10.4% All participants are over the age of 35

Simple Table of collected information

Min. on FB/day 180 180 150 120 120 120 120 120 120 120 120 120 120 90 60 60 60 60 60 Works Full-time y n y n y y n n y n n y y n y n y y n Gender F F F M F F F F F F F M F F F F F F F Residence N Carolina Oklahoma Virginia Brazil Texas Texas Washington Maryland Oklahoma Brazil Brazil Brazil Oklahoma Greece Texas Virginia NC W Virginia Brazil

Time that Friends Spend on Facebook

60 60 60 50 45 45 45 30 30 30 30 30 30 30 20 20 20 15 15 15 15 15 15 15 15 15 15 10 y n y y y n y y y y y y y n y y n y n n n n n y n y y n F F F F F F M F F F M M F M M M F F F F F F F M F M F F Massachusetts Oklahoma Central America Illinois Ohio Ohio Oklahoma Texas Rio de Janeiro Texas Oklahoma Brazil Texas Oklahoma Central America Tennessee DC Oklahoma Nevada Texas Central America Brazil Virginia Oklahoma Italy Texas Oklahoma Virginia

Results at a glance The 10 males spend 44.5 minutes per day on FB while the 37 females spend 66.2 minutes per day 60% work full-time (28 participants) and spend a mean average of 58.92 minutes per day on FB Of the 11 Brazilians who participated, the mean average was 63 min. per day Of the 35 Americans, the total average was 60 min. per day

Time that Friends Spend on Facebook

Averages The mean of this sample is: x/n = 2895/47 = 62 minutes The median is 50. The mode is bimodal in my sample, and best measures the central tendency given the clear double trends of those who are on Facebook for shorter periods, and those who are on for longer periods. There were several in between, but the dual peaks are clear at 15 min and 120 minutes. Trends Two main groups emerged from this sample: those who say they are on Facebook for 15 minutes per day and those who reported being on for 120 minutes per day. 10 people reported spending 15 minutes per day and 10 people reported spending 120 minutes per day; no other value occurs more than 10 times. Therefore, the sample is bimodal between 15 minutes and 120 minutes per day. These groups seemed evenly spread between full-time workers and those who do not work full-time; the trend also held between men and women. Also, culturally, there was a marked difference in the amount of time Brazilian males state they spend on Facebook compared to American males. Though given the small pool, no substantial claims can be made in this brief analysis. Regardless, these data suggest that further study of short vs long periods on Facebook and cultural habits would yield valuable information that goes beyond gender, socioeconomic status and would illustrate comparative ethnographic information.