National MyLife Survey Reveals Lack of Social Etiquette -- "Lurking," "Vaguebooking" and "Sharenting" Alive and Well

LOS ANGELES, Jan. 31, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- MyLife.com® today announced the results of a national survey revealing the proliferation of dubious social media behavior, and a general lack of social etiquette among certain portions of the U.S. population. For instance, the survey revealed that 88% of young parents (aged 18-35) flood Facebook with updates and photos of their children at least once a month; one in ten social media users have lost friends due to political posts; and 36% of women aged 18-35 would be embarrassed if people on the other end of their lurking knew how often they viewed their profiles.

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MyLife.com, the website that helps more than 60 million members manage their online social identity and make new connections, commissioned the online survey of 890 adults in the U.S. through SurveyMonkey, in the hopes greater awareness of these behaviors will help to eventually eradicate them.

An infographic to illustrate and self-identify common online behaviors can be found here: http://bit.ly/YGKJ94.

Other perpetrators of social media violations uncovered in the survey include:

Lurker: Most comfortable in monitoring mode, posting infrequently and making his/her social presence known primarily by the occasional response to others' posts.

• Nearly a quarter of young men under the age of 35 admit to creeping on an ex's social media profile once a month – young  women do this less, at a rate of about 20%.

Vaguebooker: Posts status updates so vague – likely by design – that friends and followers have almost no choice but to ask for more detail.

• One in four adults between 18 and 35 are guilty of "vaguebooking" on a monthly basis, posting intentionally vague or broad status updates to solicit friends and followers to react, reach out or inquire for more details.

Spoiler alert: Doesn't think twice about using social media to broadcast the details of a series finale or an opinion of a new movie's ending.

• 36% of social media users over the age of 35 admit to posting TV or movie spoilers on their social networks, though only 14% of younger social networkers are guilty of this behavior.

We get it – your kid's cute: Loves their child(ren) – likely understandably so – and has no hesitation about effusing this love all over social media.

• 88% of young parents post pictures of their kids or parenting-related updates once a month.

Joe Politics: Aggressively shares opinions on all things political, often times insisting his/her opinion is the only opinion.

• 35% of social media users post political opinions at least once a month.
• 11% of social media users have lost friends because of political posts on their social networks.

Status-hole: Lives for sarcasm, loves to status bomb/mock others.

• One in ten use social media to mock someone or something, or call someone out.
• Most frequent violators are males aged 18 – 35.

The survey results indicate that social media users are struggling with how best to manage their online lives, in terms of both sharing and consumption. According to a 2012 MyLife survey with Harris Interactive, 62%of adults who use social media keep an eye on their social networks because they don't want to miss something (e.g., news, an important event or status update). Yet with the number of people unknowingly at risk of alienating friends by engaging in the behavior described above, there may be nothing to miss out on if the poor social etiquette continues.

"Today, consumers are tied to their social media channels, and both actively contribute to and consume a growing influx of content, including status updates, photos and check-ins," said Jeff Tinsley, CEO of MyLife. "Because social media users have the freedom to say just about anything they want via these channels, social media is an arena for common, unpleasant social faux pas. Users need to become more aware of their online behavior, and keep in mind how their self-expression is perceived by their online communities. "

To learn more about the social media personas identified in the survey, identify which social violations you commit and learn MyLife's tips on proper social etiquette, visit http://bit.ly/11aI9Kb.

For consumers to efficiently manage their online social lives, MyLife offers Social Dashboard, a web and mobile platform that allows users to find connections and easily manage all of their communications across multiple social networks and emails accounts, in one place. To learn more, visit http://www.mylife.com/.

This survey was conducted online within the United States via SurveyMonkey Audience on behalf of MyLife from January 3-9, 2013 among 890 adults ages 18 and older.

About MyLife

MyLife.com® is the one place you need to make valuable personal and professional connections, plus pull together your social and email communications to help simplify your life. Eliminating the need to visit multiple services, free members can manage communication across the most popular social networks and email accounts securely and conveniently on one simple dashboard. MyLife users can also easily control their profile presence across the Web, build and monitor one online identity including many profiles, and make personal and professional connections by searching over 700 million profiles, all in one place. With over 60 million users, and growing fast, MyLife is based in Los Angeles, CA. To view MyLife's newest television spot, please visit http://youtu.be/LcOTV3i2DiY. More information can be found at http://www.mylife.com.

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SOURCE MyLife.com