Last week, the UK’s office of communication released research on social networking’s attitude, behaviour and use. To download the full report, please visit there site here.

Included are the types of users:
Alpha Socialisers (minority)
Attention Seekers (some)
Followers (most)
Faithfuls (most)
Functionals (minority)

and the non users fall in to these stereotypes:
Safety Fears
Lack of technical experience
Intellectual rejecters

Which one are you?

The negatives of social networking are: annoyance, over self-promotion, parties out of control and online bullying.

Where was identity fraud from this list I wonder?

The report has a wonderful graph on the evelotion of social networking sites;
2000 - Friends Reunited
2001
2002 - Friendster
2003 - LinkedIn, MySpace, Hi5
2004 - Flickr, Piczo, Facebook (Harvard only)
2005 - Bebo, Facebook (schools)
2006 - Facebook (everyone)
2007 - Sagazone

Who’ll be 2008 - ClubPenguin.com? Or will it be the site that is encouraging teens to get more points by getting their avatar to have a breast enlargements? We hope not. Interestingly these sites are all general sites, so make way for the rise of niche social networking site (cat lovers, nascar fans, plumbers only etc).

The report has a lot more to it than the selected highlights above. Download the report, read and enjoy.

Alpha Socialisers, Attention Seekers, attitude, bebo, ClubPenguin, facebook, Faithfuls, Followers, Friends Reuinted, Friendster, Functionals, Hi5, Linked In, myspace, Ofcom, Sagazone, social networking, stereotypes, users