The FINANCIAL -- What’s easier, to start smoking or to open a Facebook account? Well,
whatever answer you might have to this question one thing is clear,
people start craving both of them after the very first try. In the worst
case though, they might not be able to rid themselves of the
‘addiction’.
Georgia’s new statistics about the use of Facebook is worth taking a look at. We now have twice more people (757,460 to be exact) logging into Facebook than we had at the beginning of 2011, according to Socialbakers, provider of social media trends.
According to the same statistics, Georgia ranks as the #1 country in the region in terms of the use of Facebook, even surpassing Azerbaijan, which has a twice as large population and the number of people with access to the internet there is roughly three times more than in Georgia.
Relation between smoking and Facebook ‘addiction’
In Georgia, you quite often hear people making tongue-in-cheek statements that they’re addicted to Facebook as people do all over the world, whilst it is in fact true.
A study carried out by a group of researchers at Massachusetts Institute of Technology showed that there are chemical reasons at the root of the pervasive need to check social networks like Facebook.
Another study conducted by the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business showed that Facebook and twitter are more addictive than smoking.
Number of smokers VS Facebook users -- 1,700,000 people out of the approximately 4.5 million population is a smoker in Georgia. By the same token Facebook users amount to 757,460 people, in the meantime people with access to the internet in the country is no more than 1,400,000.
In other words one third of the population is a smoker in Georgia and roughly one half of internet users are already members of the Facebook virtual community.
Taking into account the vast majority of other social networking sites like oddnoklassniki, vkontakte etc, soon there’ll be more social network users than smokers, as the internet becomes more widely available in the regions too.
Interesting Facts about Facebook Use in Georgia -- The ratio of males/females using Facebook is as follows: the great majority - 62% of users - are between the ages of 18-34 whilst 17% is made up by teens under the age of 18.
The top five Georgian brands according to Facebook statistics are:
• TBC Smart Club - with 335,336 likes
• Bank of Georgia - 320,516 likes
• Alta - 155,497 likes
• Geocell - 149,958 likes
• TBC Bank - 144,639 likes
The top most popular Georgian politicians on Facebook:
• Bidzina Ivanishvili (presidential candidate) - 85,132 likes
• Mikheil Saakashvili (current President of Georgia) - 57,259 likes
• Gigi Ugulava (Mayor of Tbilisi ) - 44,897 likes
• Irakli Alasania (leader of the Free Democrats) - 10,217 likes
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