According to a report by the Pew Internet and American Life Project, a nonprofit research group in Washington, 7% of Americans use the Internet as their main means of social communication. This group is referred to as “ambivalent networkers”. They are predictably the youngest users of information technology and also use mobile devices more than any other information technology users - always wanting to be available to others, but feeling conflicted about it. Then there’s the 14% of Americans who don’t use computers or cell phones. The other 79% of Americans fall somewhere in between - hopefully on software.

According to Nielsen Online, which measures Web traffic, minutes on social networks in the U.S. rose 83% from April 2008 to April 2009. With more than 200 million active members, Facebook’s minutes increased 700% in the same time period. Facebook is the #1 social network. MySpace is second, although its minutes decreased 31% in that period. Blogger, Tagged and Twitter are third, fourth and fifth respectively. Although Twitter’s minutes increased during this time period, Nielson figures show that more than 60% of Twitter’s users stopped using the free service a month after joining it. Not tweet!

According to the “American Journal of Medicine”, medical bills were involved in 62.1% of personal bankruptcies in the U.S. in 2007 - an increase of 50% in 6 years. Although more than 75% of these people had health insurance, 92% of them had medical debts over $5,000 - in spite of most being well-educated homeowners with middle-class occupations. About 170 million people get health insurance through their employer, but 25% of firms cancel coverage when an employee has a disabling illness - another 25% cancel within a year. Then there’s the 15% of Americans without health insurance. Hopefully, the U.S. health system isn’t terminally ill.

According to a survey of more than 35,000 women which was done by Woman’s Day and AOL Living, the majority of women aren’t happily married. More than 50% are bored in bed or can’t remember the last time they had sex. Fifty-two percent said their husband wasn’t their soul mate. Although 71% of these women expect to stay married to the same man for the rest of their lives, 57% sometimes regret marrying him. In fact, at some point in their marriage, 72% have thought about leaving their spouse. It seems the “for better or for worse” part of the marriage vow is getting worse.

Knight Pierce Hirst takes a second look at what makes life interesting and it takes only second at http://knightwatch.typepad.com

[tags]Current Affairs, Culture and Society, Women, Men[/tags]