Facebook users more trusting, engaged, report says

Over 90 percent of mobile device users in the Philippines this year access sites such as Facebook, a sharp increase from the 54 percent penetration for the same population in 2010.

NEW YORK  — A  new survey is disputing the common-held view that social networks isolate people.

According to the study from the Pew Research Center’s Internet and American Life Project, Facebook users are more trusting, have more close friends, and get more social support than their non-networked counterparts.

The survey released Thursday found that, when all else is equal, people who use Facebook have 9 percent more close ties in their overall social network than other Internet users.

Facebook users are also more politically engaged than people who are not on Facebook, says the survey, conducted among 2,255 adults from Oct. 20 to Nov. 28, 2010.

Social networks are more prevalent than ever. Of U.S. Internet users, 59 percent use at least one social network. That’s up from 34 percent in 2008.