What Facebook Really Says About You

What does your Facebook or My Space page say about you? Maybe more than you realise.
Social networking sites soared in popularity

Research has found users of social networking sites fall into one of five distinct types of people - which may reveal more about you than the rest of your profile.

According to a study users fall into one of the following categories:

Alpha socialisers: Mostly male, under 25s, who use sites in intense short bursts to flirt, meet new people and be entertained.

Attention seekers: Mostly female, who crave attention and comments from others, often posting photos and customising their profiles.

Followers: Males and females of all ages who join sites to keep up with what their peers are doing.

Faithfuls: Older males and females generally aged over 20, who typically use social networking sites to rekindle old friendships, often from school or university.

Functionals: Mostly older males who tended to be single-minded in using sites for a particular use.

The study found three types of people who would not use social networking sites.

They were those concerned about safety, those who were technically inexperienced or people who consider it a waste of time.

The research, by communications watchdog Ofcom, also found nearly half of all children with access to the internet had their own personal profile on a social networking site.

A total of 49% of eight to 17-year-olds had their own profile, while 22% of adults also used such sites.

But it was more common for adults than children to have profiles on more than one networking site.

news.sky.com