Is social media changing the world? Is social media destroying television as a viable entertainment source – particularly reality shows?
Television is no longer the giant it once was. Most people live online and gather their news and their entertainment from the World Wide Web and social media. The reality show, now a TV staple, is in danger of becoming irrelevant because there are so many websites out there that can already tell you the outcome of your favorite reality show.
Back in 2009, a blogger named Erik Qualman wrote a book called: Socialnomic: How Social Media Transforms the Way We Live and Do Business. Qualman does not have cable TV and relies totally on the Internet and his cellphone. Currently, he is global vice president for online marketing for EF Education, based in Switzerland.
Here are just a few of his remarkable findings updated for 2012:
- Gen Y now outnumber the Baby Boomers and 97% of them are engaged in social media
- For the first time ever, social media has overtaken pornography as the number one destination and overall activity for people around the world.
- Half of the population of the Earth – that’s right 50% of all humans living on the planet – is under 30 years old.
- One in every five heterosexual couples met online somehow. It’s a remarkable 3-in-every-5 for the homosexual couples.
- Facebook is actually blamed for one out of every five divorces, as of 2012.
- Speaking of Facebook, if it was a country it would be the third largest country in the world with a population over double that of the United States.
- Within ten years, almost half of the current Fortune 500 will be gone.
- More e-reader devices are sold now than real books.
- LinkedIn signs up a new member every second.
- There are actually almost eighty million more people playing the game, Farmville, than there are actual farmers.
- Ford’s marketing division actually discovered that launching their new Explorer on Facebook was more effective than running a commercial on the Super Bowl.
Oh, and one final note: in the time it took you read this article, over one hundred hours of video has been uploaded to YouTube.
