Mather Consulting Group, Inc.

An illustration of a computer from a 1958 IBM promotional brochure titled ‘World of Numbers’

“In only a few short years, electronic computing systems have been invented and improved at a tremendous rate. But computers did not ‘just grow.’ They have evolved… They were born and they are being improved as a consequence of man’s ingenuity, his imagination… and his mathematics.” — 1958 IBM brochure

The Internet is a medium that has grown and continues to evolve at unprecedented speed. It’s a wild organism of sweeping cultural change – bringing people together with common believes – spurring social and political movements. It’s a transformative medium, and as philosopher Marshall McLuhan once hypothesized – all forms of media are extensions of the human senses. The engine of our collective creative efforts is the force that’s causing the web to evolve more rapidly than any biological organism ever has. Whether you want to utilize the internet for cost-effective marketing for your small business (just think about how much internet use our youth have already experienced), or want to video chat with you family members in a whole other hemisphere – you will be able to find a way to do it with the internet. The craziest part, is that we are only beginning to see the potential of the world wide web.

I have put together some links to infographics about the internet, social media & related content to give you a better understanding of the usage and demographics taking advantage of the internet:

Social Media Conversation Prism –

The Conversation Prism is a visual mapping of the shifting landscape of social networks and micro communities. It beautifully represents social media tools for marketing, finance, human resources and more. Each tool is represented by their logo and arranged in a circular, flower-like structure. The graphic will continue to evolve as services and conversation channels emerge, fuse, and dissipate.

Popular Site Demographics –

Numerous social media sites have witnessed explosive growth of their user bases in the last several years, but it’s a known fact that user demographics, including age, gender, income and education, vary across different platforms. This infographic maps the demographics of the world’s 7 most popular social media sites.

How are Mobile Phones Changing Social Media? –

The mobile web is growing at an exponential rate, and this trend shows no signs of slowing down. This infographic illustrates the rates at which people use the mobile web for social activities. It highlights a few intriguing facts, such as that there are more than 100 million active Facebook mobile users, and that those mobile users are twice as active on Facebook than non-mobile users. It also notes that 18-34 year olds account for about 50% of mobile social networking usage, with female usage higher than male usage.

Social Web Involvement –

This is a global map of social web involvement which illustrates that hundreds of millions of web users are creating and sharing content every month. It provides a clear visualization of the ways in which social technologies are adopted differently across the world, showing the number of active bloggers, social networkers, video sharers, photo uploaders and microbloggers.

References:

The Future of the Internet: Smashing Magazine
Social Media Infographics: Mashable
More Social Media Infographics: eConsultancy