Stay Connected, Lifestyle - Tech - Kolkata Mirror,Kolkata Mirror

By Kamanashish Roy

Posted On Monday, November 09, 2009 at 04:45:51 PM

Imagine a situation that you are waiting at Park Street crossing for a taxi. Suddenly a taxi stops in front of you, opens its door and asks you to get in. To add to your amazement, the driver drops you at the right place without even asking for your destination.

Social networks are innumerable today

Seems like a science fiction or a mafia movie?

Think again, the system only needs to know about your need to offer you this service. But where is that system and how does the system know so much about you?

What was your last 140 character update at Twitter? “Waiting for a taxi at Park Street crossing. Need to meet Anirudh Lohia at City Center.”

Don’t you think this message and your profile picture is enough for a company to send you the taxi at the right place at the right time?

It is not just about an immediate service that you require. Google (Orkut, Google search, Gmail etc.), FaceBook and other advanced networks know about you more than even you do. They can gather structured data about your needs, activities, connections, social position and everything

They have enough information to offer you just what you need and at the right moment

else that you disclose in your profile page or even discussions. They have enough information to offer you just what you need and at the right moment. Are you aware about this?

Why and how do you use social networks?

According to a survey conducted at Bengal College of Engineering and Technology (Durgapur) during a web workshop organised by BCET Bloggers and WebReps, on an average people spend around 1 hour 10 minutes everyday at different social networks. The time ranges from 10 minutes to 5 hours everyday. Let us take a look at the survey results.

Which Networks:

Orkut	67 per cent
Twitter	8.25 per cent
Linkedin	2.06 per cent
Facebook	18.56 per cent
Others	1.03 per cent
None	3.09 per cent

The networks help you stay connected with the world

There is a saying that people graduate from Orkut and start using Facebook. We had no doubt that Orkut will top the list. However, we wanted to see how many people actually use specialised networks like LinkedIn. And the number was very low.

Why they use social networks:

To stay connected with friends	61 per cent
For more news and information	31 per cent
To connect with industry experts	6 per cent
Others	2 per cent

The top reason was not very surprising. I wonder how our parents stayed connected with their friends! But we were more surprised to see how “For more news and information” scored so well when the Twitter and LinkedIn users are so low and none mentioned networks like FriendFeed. But at least one person impressed by saying that he uses social network for fun.

Many use social networks mainly to promote their blogs or to get connected

However, the avid users maintain accounts at most of the important social networks and at the same time they do not spend more than 1 hour 30 minutes everyday. Undoubtedly they have different reasons to use social networks.

Why do they do it?

Most of these avid users at BCET are bloggers too. They keep on developing their online properties or online presence points. Rather than being just a part of the passive market, they actually try to make the most out of these social networks. In this case, they use social networks mainly to promote their blogs or to get connected. These avid users use these networks to collect information, get connected with the right person etc. In simple terms, they have a reason for using the social networks.

Share your thoughts here and wait for the next article on how to make the most out of social networks!

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