July 2012
Featured in this insight: IT & telecommunications
Study suggests that social network 'friends' are not real friends: Research from YouGov, commissioned by Links of London, has revealed that most adults in the UK feel that they have a key group of five or less friends who they could go to for advice and support in a crisis – despite some of them having over 100 friends on social media sites.
More than three quarters (76%) of 18 to 24 year olds have 100 friends or more on social media sites, but over half (54%) feel that a key circle of five friends is sufficient to live a happy and successful life.
In terms of social media sites – such as Twitter, Facebook and MySpace – out of 2,045 people asked, 61% of people feel that less than one in five (20%) of their connections are true friends. Indeed, two fifths (42%) believe that the real proportion of true – ‘real life’ – friends on sites such as Facebook is closer to one in ten.
Over 90% of respondents said they looked upon core groups of ‘real life’ friends as role models, and nearly 40% of these people attributed successes in their lives to the few, core friends they have.
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