Given that social media applications and services have only recently become available, these high usage rates indicate a surprisingly rapid take up among large parts of the European population. These findings are confirmed by a recent IPTS assessment of social computing (Ala-Mutka et al. 2009b) and by figures from other independent sources. Nielsen Online (2009) estimates that, globally, 67% of Internet users accessed social networking sites or blogs in 2008. According to the 2009 Youthnet report (Hulme, 2009), 75% of 16 to 24 year olds claimed they could not live without the Internet; 82% of the young people surveyed.
