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Social Networking Tips
Geek tips

121 Billion Minutes' Worth of Social Networking How-Tos

Peek over the shoulder at the smartphone of any commuter or an office worker's computer screen during a break, and undoubtedly you'll see a social network open.
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Peek over the shoulder at the smartphone of any commuter or an office worker's computer screen during a break, and undoubtedly you'll see a social network open. According to Nielsen's 2012 Social Media Report, all those quick looks at Facebook or a scroll through Twitter news added up to Americans spending 121 billion minutes on social networking in one month. While Facebook remains the top social site, those minutes are also being filled with services like Blogger, Pinterest, and Google+.

Make efficient sense of your time online with our must-follow tips for social networks.

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Facebook Most Used Social Network
study

Not Surprising: Facebook Dominates Social Networking Time

We all know what a time suck Facebook can be, so I'm not surprised that the results of a recent Nielson study says what we already knew: Americans are hooked on social networks.
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We all know what a time suck Facebook can be, so I'm not surprised that the results of a recent Nielson study says what we already knew: Americans are hooked on social networks.

The study, which was conducted in June of this year, says that nearly 25 percent of our time online is spent checking various social networks, while Facebook accounts for 85 percent of that share. I'm sure Facebook's 500 million members aren't surprised either. Although Facebook has recently experienced a rough PR patch — for its service and its back-and-forth privacy policies — it remains the top online time waster in America. Want to know how else people spend their time online? Find out more, and how you can neatly organize all of your current social networks to cut down on your time online (if you so choose) after the break.

Do You Watch More or Less TV Than Average?
TV

Do You Watch More or Less TV Than Average?

TV watching in the US is now at an all-time high.
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TV watching in the US is now at an all-time high. According to a new Nielsen survey, the average US household has the TV on for eight hours and 18 minutes each day. That's more than a third of the day!

Granted, that doesn't mean people are actually watching closely — having the TV on in the background would count toward that total. But still! Eight hours! Not to say I've never done it, but I assume I watch more TV than most people. But I could be wrong, so tell me — how does your TV watching compare to the US average?

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How Many TV Channels Do You Get?
TV

How Many TV Channels Do You Get?

In case you couldn't tell from your swelling lineup of digital cable options, the number of TV channels the average American household receives just keeps going up.
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In case you couldn't tell from your swelling lineup of digital cable options, the number of TV channels the average American household receives just keeps going up. In the latest TV-watching study from Nielsen, a typical US home now gets 119 TV channels, a new high.

That's not to say that all of those channels get watched — in fact, the average household watches only 16 of them! That said, it seems like every time I turn on the TV, my Comcast service has added another channel or 20 to the lineup. So I'm wondering: How many channels do you have available for surfing?

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Good to Know: Entertainment by the Numbers
Top Ten List

Good to Know: Entertainment by the Numbers

Nielsen, the company that measures TV ratings, among other things, just released its annual top-ten lists ranking everything from the most-watched TV shows to the most-purchased supermarket goods (bread's a big one).
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Nielsen, the company that measures TV ratings, among other things, just released its annual top-ten lists ranking everything from the most-watched TV shows to the most-purchased supermarket goods (bread's a big one). I'm a sucker for entertainment-related factoids, so here are a few nuggets from this year's lists:

  • Where in the United States has the most-avid moviegoers? Salt Lake City! The Salt Lake area ranked first in the percentage of adults who had been to the movies four or more times in the three months before the survey was conducted. Miami/Ft. Lauderdale, El Paso, and the San Francisco Bay Area were next.
  • By those standards, only 8 percent of US adults qualify as avid moviegoers.
  • After the Super Bowl and Oscars, the top 10 TV programs of the year were all various installments of American Idol.
  • Lost and Heroes tied for the TV series that's most commonly timeshifted, or watched on a DVR. Each gained almost 18 percent more viewers than the number who watched the shows live.
  • Only four TV shows can regularly get more than 10 percent of US residents to tune in at any given time: Idol, Dancing With the Stars, Sunday Night Football, and CSI.
  • As of Dec. 2, the High School Musical soundtrack was on pace to become the top-selling album of the year, followed by Daughtry, and Linkin Park's Minutes to Midnight.
  • Through Nov. 25, Khaled Hosseini had books ranked at number one and two on the list of best-selling fiction: A Thousand Splendid Suns was first, followed by The Kite Runner.

You can check out all the lists, and then let me know: Does anything surprise you about 2007 by the numbers?

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Nielsen's Cellphone Tracking Plot Thickens
News

Nielsen's Cellphone Tracking Plot Thickens

If you don't think people are actually using services like LG's Mobile TV, which delivers programs from some of the biggest television networks to your cell, think again.
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If you don't think people are actually using services like LG's Mobile TV, which delivers programs from some of the biggest television networks to your cell, think again. Nielsen Research Company - you know the television consumption monitors BuzzSugar is always talking about? - has announced it will acquire Telephia, a private company based in San Francisco.

According to the New York Times, Telephia is one of the most respected sources of data about cellphone use - as in tracking consumers’ phone calling, mobile Web surfing, video viewing and just about everything else. While Nielsen has been building mobile tracking products on its own, it will use Telephia's products to make its research more complete.
Personally, I've never watched a TV on a cell phone so the news that Nielsen is ready to start tracking the use is pretty shocking. Have you ever watched TV on your cell?

How Many TV Channels Do You Watch?
TV

How Many TV Channels Do You Watch?

Behold the wonders of cable: According to a new survey from the Nielsen Research Company, the average U.S.
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Behold the wonders of cable: According to a new survey from the Nielsen Research Company, the average U.S. household gets a whopping 104 TV channels. But that doesn't mean people are watching them. The survey found that the average home actually tunes into just about 15 of those channels each week.

I tried jotting down a list of channels I watch regularly and couldn't even get to 20! What about you? How many of your channels do you actually watch?

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