Brightkite, the Social Discovery Network, and GfK Technology, a leading market research agency, released results from a consumer survey on how time spent using social networks (“Screen-Time”) relates to time spent in face-to-face social interaction (“Face-Time”). The findings of the quarterly Face Time Index, conducted in June 2009, questioned 1,000 consumers on both their preferred and actual behavior relating to various social activities online and offline.

Consumers Prefer In-Person Social Interaction…

Face-Time is overwhelmingly preferred to time spent using social networks. Respondents also indicated that spending time in-person with friends is of significantly more interest than watching TV and talking on the phone. The survey findings show that:

• 87 percent of people would rather spend time face-to-face than spend time online
• Respondents ages 18-24 enjoy face time with friends a staggering 55 times more than they enjoy using social networks
• Overall, consumers prefer face time 44 times more than social nets

Actual Consumer Behavior Tells Another Story…

While respondents claim to prefer in-person social interaction, when Brightkite looked at how US adults actually spent their time, they found a very different pattern. Findings show:

• Two-thirds or respondents agree that they don’t see their friends as often as they would like
• 9 percent of consumers admit that they are “addicted to social networks” (peaking at 21 percent for the 18-24 age bracket)
• 11 percent of respondents 18-24 years of ages spent more than four hours per day on social networks

“Social networks can keep us close to people from far away, but they do not replace the joy and value that face time with friends brings us. As use of social networks proliferates, we need to find ways to use them to stimulate more face time, not use them as a substitute for real social interaction,” said Jonathon Linner, Brightkite’s CEO.

Additional conclusions drawn from the survey include:

• Woman prefer face time 70 times more than using social networks, compared to men, who only prefer it 33 times more
• Facebook is the most popular social network, except for the under the age of 25 who prefer MySpace
• Facebook skews female, MySpace skews strongly male
• Social Discovery Networks (such as Brightkite) see around 2 percent of social network users