Last spring, we released our SMIS (Social Media Impact Score), which measures the impact of social media on the look and feel of our lives. This past December, we re-asked the same questions to evaluate how our attitudes changed as the year unfolded.
Quite unexpectedly, the overall SMIS remained steady throughout 2011 – only a slight dip from 50.20 to 49.46. It appears neither recession blues nor holiday cheer did much to change our outlook on social media and its influence on our lives. At the end of 2011,
- About 1 in 2 online users still felt that social media had a positive impact on our world; while about 1 in 3 disagreed and said the impact has been predominantly negative.
However, when peeling back this peripheral layer, there are a couple of notable changes that lay beneath the surface of the SMIS. At the end of 2011 (versus 8 months earlier), we were:
- more likely to criticize social media for making us slightly more anxious and stressed.
- less likely to see social media as an impetus for taking risk in our lives.
But…. is social media really the guilty party here – or is it just taking the fall for a deteriorating economy and/or winter blues? What do you think? Have you relied on social media more in the past several months – or no? How has social media changed your life?
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