One in five users of MySpace and Facebook have admitted they use the websites to flirt, according to new research on US social networking trends.
A report by the Pew Internet and American Life Project also found that the number of adults using social networking sites in the US has quadrupled in the past three years, with 35% accessing profiles on social networking sites like MySpace, Facebook and LinkedIn.
Pew's research suggests that 22% of MySpacers and 22% of Facebook users canvassed for the study confess to using the sites to flirt, while 27% use them to promote their work.
Most networking activity, around 89%, is focused on contacting existing friends, while 57% use sites to make plans with friends and only 49% use them to make new contacts.
The report also showed that although 65% of teenagers in the US use social networking sites, they are outnumbered by adults, who account for far more of the overall population.
Though younger people are far more likely to register, the Pew results suggest far greater potential for social networking sites targeted at users in their late 20s and older with use increasing from just 8% since February 2005.
Pew found that 75% of US adults aged 18-24 use social networks, 57% of adults aged 25-34, and 30% aged 35-44. The results also showed that sites such as MySpace were far more popular for socialising than for professional contacts, with just 6% of those surveyed saying they used business social networking site LinkedIn.
The survey said 50% of respondents had a MySpace profile and 22% were on Facebook. Recent data from comScore shows Facebook closing the gap with MySpace in the US in terms of registered users, though it has already overtaken MySpace as the most popular social networking site in the UK.
MySpace users were more likely to be female, black or Hispanic and had a median age of 27. Facebook users tend be older with a university degree and male, around 26, while LinkedIn users were mostly white men with college degrees around the age of 40. These results will be seen as good news for LinkedIn, indicating it has a more wealthy demographic that will appeal to its advertisers.
Pew's senior research specialist, Amanda Lenhart, said that for younger web users, social networking is now a mainstream experience. There needs to be a critical mass of take up among a user's friends to make the social networking experience worthwhile, she added, and it is easier for teenagers because their friends are more likely to be online.
Lenhart also said there was little evidence that niche sites had made much of an impact on general social networking use, with MySpace, LinkedIn and Facebook dominating the Pew results. Niche sites, such as Black Planet, Orkut and even the dating site Match.com were mentioned by some of those surveyed but Lenhart described these as part of the "very long tail", barely making a dent on mainstream social networking usage.
"This technology is very sticky, and people that really love it use it a lot. As a society, across the US and Europe and all over the world there is some incredibly innovative new technology that enables us to communicate with each other, though we'll have to see whether these take time away from these social networking sites or enables us to interact in a different way", she added.