Connected to the World

Social media is now part of many people’s daily lives. It is estimated that around of the world’s 4.2 billion people — nearly 56 percent of the world’s population — use social media regularly.

   Facebook, the world’s most popular social media site, has 2.7 billion users worldwide. WeChat, a Chinese social media site, has about 1.2 billion users.

Research shows that, worldwide, the average person spends over two hours on social media every day. People in the Philippines have been found to be the most active users, spending over 4 hours on social media sites each day in general. Research also suggests that women are more active on social media than men are in the U.S.

But what do people spend this time on social media doing? According to one survey, the most common social media activities are visiting other users’ profile pages, reading their news, and leaving comments on what they post. It appears that users spend more time looking at other people’s pages than adding to their own.

Every second, five new Facebook profiles are created. And as Internet access becomes more widely available to people all over the world, the growth of social media’s popularity will only continue.

Task 1

Complete the summary with information from the passage. Use no more than one word or number for each blank.

As social media is becoming a part of more people’s 1. _______, researchers have become interested in finding out how users spend their time on social media. The world’s most 2. _________ social media site is Facebook. Generally, users spend more time reading their friends’ news and 3. ____________ on their posts than adding to their own 4. ________. With more people gaining 5. ______ to the Internet, the popularity of social media is expected to keep growing.