Social media big with Brits this Christmas

According to research by Pew Research Center, the UK currently leads the world in social networking usage, with over half of those sampled (52 per cent) admitting to using at least one such site. Online casino RoxyPalace.com has also been doing some research, finding out how Brits will use the likes of Facebook and Twitter over the holiday period.

The company’s survey, which polled 1,000 people, arrived at an average Christmas Day social media usage time of 86 minutes, with four per cent of those polled stating they would stay logged in throughout the entire day, to receive notifications as they arrive. 78 per cent also revealed they planned on updating their Facebook or Twitter feeds on Christmas Day.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the main reason people were planning to use social networking was revealed to be wishing other people Merry Christmas (53 per cent). Other top social tasks for the day are likely to include posting festive images, thanking people for gifts and, given that this was a survey of Brits, talking about the weather. (Perhaps unfortunately for RoxyPalace.com, no-one seemed to say “spend lots of time at an online casino”.) Of those surveyed, mobile appeared to be the top choice for connecting to social sites, with over half stating they will use smartphones, compared with 38 per cent favouring a PC and only one in 10 planning on using a tablet. And to hammer home the fact Brits are now wannabe cyborgs, 64 per cent argued they’d prefer to contact others on Christmas Day through social media rather than sending text messages or (depressingly) actually phoning them up and talking to them.