Quiz: Which country spends the most time on social-networking websites?

Quiz question for the week:

Which country spends the most time on social-networking websites?

a) Italy    b) Japan    c) United States 

(For those of you who don’t subscribe to the bimonthly print edition of Foreign Policy, you’re missing a great feature: the FP Quiz. It has eight intriguing questions about how the world works.)

Answer after the jump … 

A, Italy. Italian users of social-networking sites spent an average 6 hours, 28 minutes, on activities such as twittering and “friending” people in February of this year, according to media-information firm Nielsen. American social networkers were similarly addicted, with 6 hours, 3 minutes, that month, while the Japanese, at 2 hours, 37 minutes, appear to spend their time on other activities (I suspect they’re on sites not included in Nielsen’s analysis). Overall, social networking is more and more of a time-suck. In the 10 countries analyzed by Nielsen, average social-networking time reached 5 hours, 28 minutes, in February 2010, up more than 2 hours from February 2009.

(It would have been nice if Nielsen had provided information for more than 10 countries, but that’s the best I can get you at this point.)

Source: “Global Audience Spends Two Hours More a Month on Social Networks than Last Year,” Nielsen Wire, March 19, 2010.

Another interesting tidbit: The average Facebook user logged on 19 times in February and spent 5 minutes, 52 minutes, total on the site. 

Source: “Global Audience Spends Two Hours More a Month on Social Networks than Last Year,” Nielsen Wire, March 19, 2010.

And for more questions about how the world works, check out the rest of the FP Quiz.