Internet users spend an average of 24 minutes per day on social networking sites, but Ireland is above that average, with Irish users spending 25 minutes on sites such as Facebook and Twitter, Cisco data suggests.
Ireland isn’t alone however in the 25-minute figure, with internet users in France and the UK spending that same amount of time on social networking sites.
Users in Germany spent the least amount of time on social networking sites, at 20 minutes on average. Spain is also above the average, spending a full half-hour on these sites.
Social networking sites have become a fundamental asset for more businesses, with more employees needing to use them to carry out their jobs.
Yet Cisco data also revealed 40pc of companies around the world are, in some form, blocking access to social networking sites.
“When it comes to social networking it is possible for companies to keep up with real-life trends while maintaining a healthy work balance,” said Maurizio Taffone, technical product lead at Cisco.
“As long as businesses have the right security processes in place and a clearly communicated acceptable usage policy for staff, employers should remain open-minded to sites that can be used for positive reasons, such as exchanging ideas, recruitment and networking”.
It is also vital that organisations implement suitable security measures in order to protect their employees and corporate data that may be at risk of malware.
