If you happen across a gay, lesbian, or bisexual person on a social-networking site, don’t be surprised. According to a recent survey conducted by Harris Interactive and Witeck-Combs Communications, the percentage of GLB (gay-lesbian-bisexual) individuals who use such sites outweighs the number of their heterosexual counterparts.
The survey revealed that roughly 75 percent of the GLB community consider themselves to be Internet savvy, spending between eight and 168 hours online per week, compared to the 59 percent of heterosexuals who classify as heavy Internet users.
During that time, GLB users spent more time visiting social-networking sites such as Friendster (11 percent for GLB users versus 4 percent for heterosexuals) and MySpace (33 percent versus 28 percent), while time spent on FaceBook was an even 11 percent for both groups.
YouTube (27 percent for GLB users, 22 percent for heteros) and CraigsList (20 percent versus 13 percent) also were considered for the survey. The percentages represent the amount of users who spend an hour or less on those sites per week.
Additionally, blogs also emerged as another online destination that is high among GLB users, with personal blogs (GLB 24 percent; heterosexual 12 percent), news blogs (19 percent; 9 percent), political blogs (13 percent, 8 percent), current issue blogs (13 percent; 8 percent), and entertainment blogs (9 percent; 6 percent) representing the most trafficked. Even sports blogs faired higher among GLB readers, with 8 percent claiming to check them out; only 5 percent of straights, however, claimed to read sports blogs. Roughly 36 percent of the GLB community responded that they read blogs on a daily basis, compared to 19 percent of heterosexuals who claimed they did.
The data was compiled from a survey of 2,542 adults over the age of 18, with 2,205 of participants identifying as heterosexual and 267 as gay, lesbian, or bisexual.
“I am not surprised that more time is spent on the social-networking sites by the GLB community than the hetero community for a couple reasons,” commented Kristy Mitchell, president of popular dating site Eroticy.com, which recently launched a gay version, EroticyMale.com, due to overwhelming demand. “An individual can create an alter ego online; therefore, they may feel much more comfortable expressing themselves through a computer than in the flesh.
“The online community seems also to be much more accepting of the GLB lifestyle, so it seems natural that they would feel at ease utilizing the resources available to them in these forums,” Mitchell added. “It could also be a matter of GLB Internet users looking for outlets to find like-minded people in a more private way than joining their local gay/lesbian clubs or going out to bars.”
