It really depends on social network! Research Gate is the network where I do spend the most of time among many networks like Linkedin, Twitter, FB,...! Different networks, different beneficiaries! 

But  I do notice a kind of addiction at RG since there is  the huge communication among us! It is, when I have time, few hours per day!

I don't have a track record of my daily time spending on different social sites. But I mainly spend on RG only, and I consider it as an investment of time (not wastage).

Dear Ajay, I am also spending time on RG and little time on FB, only these two sites and I think it is good for my mental health. Thanks

I also spend a good time on RG with constructive suggestions, answers to questions, interactions, seeing good researches of fellow members, knowing about new members, enriching knowledge, getting new friends, etc. So, I consider it is an investment.

The only social network I go to is RG. I read people's work, questions, etc. I have no poatience for any other and neither their members have with me.

I spend my time on RG, nothing else. In my opinion, even though RG has a social nature it's more of a professional network. So, it helps to develop professionally.

Yes, I agree that RG is the best social site for discussing our ideas, problems, and research experiences with the scientific community worldwide and many times we interact with like-minded people of different disciplines.

Dear Professor Ajay Singh,

It is hard to say that how time one can spent on social network / websites. I usual spent 1-2 hours  every day only on RG.

I also spend about 1-2 hours (may be more sometimes; But exactly don't have a track record of the same) daily on RG and enjoyed much in sharing my views and ideas with the people of different disciplines.

I use only RG to exchange ideas with the researchers of different disciplines from all over the world. I agree with Serge that RG helps us to develop professionally. 

It really depends on social network! Research Gate is the network where I do spend the most of time among many networks like Linkedin, Twitter, FB,...! Different networks, different beneficiaries! 

But  I do notice a kind of addiction at RG since there is  the huge communication among us! It is, when I have time, few hours per day!

In general, I spend a very little time on social network. I spend not less than one hour everyday on RG questioning, answering, and endorsing. I feel that my time spent on RG is very useful.

I look through questions  for 5-10 min per day, and if I can answer or I would like to find the answer for myself, I spend more time, it depends on the question. I found it very useful for my work. 

Like others, I also spent more time on RG than other networks. But wastage or investment of time is depends on how are you using that network, it's completely depend on you. For example, FACEBOOK. You can upload new photos, keep on chat with friend, making friend in FB etc. Also you can join community like PHYSICS TODAY, ABC SCIENCE, and lots where you can update and share your knowledge..............

Sometimes, simply time pass also part of your life.

SO THINGS IS THAT HOW ARE YOU USING THE NETWORK ......................

Anyway, out of all RG is the best for me.

HNY to all.

Personally, I only keep track of my RG and Google Scholar records. I dont use other social networking.

Back to your question. Here I present some statistics:

1) from globalwebindex.net which shows daily time spent on social networks: 1 hour+ for 44%

2) The second chart from statista.com shows the percentage of time spent on social networks in the United States, by platform.

To me, RG is more comprehensive and inclusive social site. So, I devote time. I think we can realize more time value than other sites.

Happy New Year- 2015 to all friends!

Thanks

I use Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Researchgate. All these social media are very helpful to me in my professional and social life.

I don't think it as wastage of time.

I think that spending time on social sites is a kind of addiction. I have noticed many people spending hours on many such networks for just time pass (except RG) and perhaps they don't get anything professionally, at least. But RG offers many benefits for ones professional and personal developments.

Dear Ajay,

I completely agree with you that RG offers many benefits for ones professional and personal developments.

Dear Mahfuz, You are right. But do you think that every user of the RG is getting the same benefits of spending time on it?

How much time do you spend on social sites? Is it an investment or waste of time?

Actually, RG is a good resource for professional and personal developments. That's why I spend time, everyday, reading others opinions, asking questions and answering.

On the other hand, my students face book account is online all the time to answer their questions and to upload articles, diagrams and videos that help understanding lectures. For them, my face book account is a good resource for knowledge.

Happy new year 2015

I use only RG for about 30 min per day.

Mainly to retrieve publications I cannot access to in other ways, but also to participate in some discussions.

Up to now it seems an investment of time, probably my consideration would change at longer connection times.

Surely exists a component of 'addiction' triggered by mechanism of the score increases, everyone shoud be aware of.

Hi Ajay,

My mouse mile is rather high! LOL

I spend some time on RG and LinkedIn almost on daily basis.

Most of the time I spend in in RG the other sites I used to spend is Grabcad and my minifactory

http://www.myminifactory.com/users/prabhakar21987

http://grabcad.com/prabhakar.purushothamman-1/projects

I think the mechanism of RG score, which is highly mysterious,  triggers the addiction of spending more time on ResearchGate.

Yes Ajay, RG score is highly mysterious. Some extent, it triggers the addiction of spending more time on Research Gate. Some other reasons like behavioural, impulsive, and social reasons may also motivate the members for spending more time on RG. 

Time spent on RG is not a wastage. It is enormously advantageous as many scholars have noticed. I really wish that I can have more time to spend on RG. I do not have accounts in FB or twitter but may do so in the future to see what they have got.

Dear @Ajay, thank you for the season's greetings and I also wish you a happy new year. RG is different from the other social media networks; it offers many research facilities and it is a medium to exchange research ideas. I do spend some time on RG when I have free times and I wish I have more time for RG.

I think most RG participants spend about 1-2 hours average daily time on ResearchGate and for them it is an investment of the time for increasing their personal, professional, and social activities.

It seems almost obvious that those who work in research spend time on RG because their interests (updates, easy access to literature, expert opinions on scientific problems and even the possibility of collaborations) can be cultivated and satisfied. Obviously, the time available is not much, so it is impossible to follow many "social networks". It is normal that the teen-agers exchange views on FB for their problems, as well as adults with similar problems (i.e. mothers of children attending the same school) can find facilities from the dialogue on FB rather than a phone conversation or a personal meeting. I do not think that the time spent on "social networks" is a waste of time, when used for specific purposes, rather it might be time gained to speed up some operations. However, there is the possibity that some people abuse of  "social networks" (enclosing RG) and just use them as a pastime distorting reality and purposes. As Andras said in another forum often we upvote a simple "thank you" as well as some people shows on FB tha cake of the birthday.

If time spent on a social website helps work and gives pleasure, it does not matter.  It is when the two clash and in the worse cases harm arises one has to reduce the time and even altogether stop. 

I fully agree with the views of dear Ierardi, that the time spent on social networks, particularly RG, is not a waste of time, rather it might be time gained to speed up some operations.

Dear Huajiang, You are right that the time spent on a social site,i.e., RG helps work and gives pleasure. But if this is the case, I don't see any reason of ones reducing or stopping time on RG due to a clash.

Question is on "Wastage of time" or "Investment time". Everything has its own improtants. So better to tell "TIME MANAGEMENT". How are you managing your time? Differernt social network have different activity and I feel everything is required in our live. When you are giving improtance to one things, you should realize the things, which one got less priority in your list. With that other two words coming into my mind USE and ABUSE. It's like without darkness, there is no value of light.

I'm agree with Enzo's viewpoint.

What will you say about this discussion? Is it "Waste of time" or "investment of time"? Here, I'm not gainig anything. Only open discussion and others view.

So everything matters in our lifetime. Nothing is good or not bad unless how you are handling the things.

Most of us spend a lot of time on social media. But how much of this is truly time invested vs. time wasted? While it is tempting, I do not have any of my social media site opened all day in a desktop application; rather I dip in a couple of times and treat it as a break from work. So, clearly a lot of the time spent by me in social media is for leisure. In fact, it is a matter of one's priorities and mindset if he/she regards it as a waste of time. One has to think in terms of one's intention vis-a-vis return on social media investment (ROSMI). I personally gained a lot in terms of a good number of learned friends and their thoughts on various issues through my association with RG. Even though, I feel that one should not pressure oneself with these stuffs and keep one's important responsibilities and priorities in check. Pick your battles and closely monitor where your time goes and what results you get, and if you have fun, well there is no harm in that is there.

Yes, I agree with the recent posts that  while spending time on social sites may be important for ones professional, personal, and/or social gains but the ones main work should not be hampered with such activity.

RG is comparatively more constructive and positive than other social media. So, useful.

RG is more important than other social networking sites. At least you get a scientific answers from scientific specialists.

Yes, RG is more constructive and important social networking site, particularly for the researchers, than the other sites.

Dear RG Fellows,

Thank you very much for your contributions.

Happy new year 2015 to you, your family, and friends.

Best regards

Ajay

Please don't get addict of any social site. It will waste your potential time.

Yes, I fully agree with the recent post(s) that getting addicted of social sites will waste our potential and productive time and thus we should only spend spare time on these sites.

I have not a fixed 'time budget', it depends on the 'targeting' that I have each period. Every social media has its benefits and gray zones. We should avoid any kind of addiction, since it is not fruitful to creativity.

Happy New Year!

PS Can you decrypt the picture?

Yes, I agree that every social media has its pluses and minuses but we should avoid any kind of addiction, as it is not fruitful to creativity.

Dear @Demetris and friends, Happy New Year! 

Regarding your crypt problem on 2015, the first raw presents the multiplication of free numbers!

The second one is the SUM of Fibonacci's members of series!

Dear RG Fellows,

Thanks once again for your participation.

Happy New Year 2015 with hope that you will have many blessings in it.

Dear @Ajay, here is a fine thread with so many good questions, it is related to your thread!

https://www.researchgate.net/post/How_much_time_are_we_spending_on_social_networking_sites_including_FB_and_RG_Does_it_have_negative_effect_on_deeper_relationships_in_our_families#view=54a29208d4c1183b258b45e3

In my opinion RG contributes to democratization and liberalization of the science.

Dear Kazaros and All,

Happy New year. Besides what you said "democratization and liberalization", We can save money by downloading full-text articles from RG member's profile .Also we can even get a copy of "copy-righted articles" directly from the authors free of charge! I regularly respond to my pending requests.  Have a nice holiday.

I agree with Ajay Singh. I also used to spend lot of a time on social network, but trying to be not wasted. 

I wish to all of my RG friends and your family a very happy and productive New Year.

Kind Regards

Happy and magnificent New year to all participants.

I am wishing all friends a SAFE and prosperous 2015, considering the unbearable sorrows suffered recently in my country. Now about this question, it's very similar to mine that Prof Ljubomir has posted.  If I asked a question, I would normally check that others haven't asked it yet.  But I am normally a happy optimistic person, and for me the glass is always half full, and I prefer to think that great minds think alike.

I only spend a little time on FB and RG a day (about half an hour to 1 hour) when I'm in the midst of research analysis or writing or re-writing a rejected paper (as now).  But when that task is done I can spend an hour or two a day.  

I was absent for two days, so my presence at RG is a bit longer than usually! 

I think besides saving the money by downloading full-text articles from RG member's profile, we can also develop research collaborations with the fellow RG members across the world, which could be a big benefit of spending time on ResearchGate.

Yes, Ajay Singh, good idea, it is not only an opportunity but also benefit to RG members to collaborate with the fellow RG members across the world. It also enhances the cross cultural research.

The cross-cultural and mulch-disciplinary research are the need of the time in the changing social and environmental context and I think ResearchGate provides a good platform for developing such research due to collaborations etc.

Better use spare time on Research Gate rather than indulging irrelevant discussion with fellows. We must use RG constructively.

I think ResearchGate is a very good platform for discussions of any scientific issue among the researchers of different disciplines around the globe and of course, it is much better to spend time at RG than the useless and time-pass individual gossip.

Gossip is just a tool to distract people who have nothing better to do from feeling jealous of those few of us still remaining with noble hearts.- Anna Godbersen

It is an investment and gives satisfaction and pleasures in different terms, and for some persons / young ones it can be a wastage of time as per situations and time factor / responsibilties

Time is the most precious resource and we should all use it very carefully and judiciously for productive activities only.

Time lost is never found again. -Benjamin Franklin

One day, the servers of Research Gate will tell us the story about the time spent at RG!

Those who are on RG along with other social sites spending more time on Research Gate, as it is more useful for teachers and researchers.

This is obvious because ResearchGate is a social networking site particularly for scientists and researchers to share papers, ideas, and find collaborators.

ResearchGate consumes much time as compared to other social sites, but it is productive.

It depends on one's profession and age group one belong. As Ruchi Tiwari writes, it is true. The liking and priorities of different professions and different age groups are different.

I also agree and in general, as per my observations, lower the age group higher the wastage of time and vice versa, irrespective of one's profession.

There is no right or wrong as well as common and consistent answer to this question. Spending time on social media depends on your interest, purpose and pursuits. It also depends on how many social media platform you attend. My own social media activity averages about 45 minutes to an hour a day, usually in smaller increments during the day. There is no way to estimate how long you should be spending, unless you have a detailed social media plan that outlines what you hope to accomplish and how you intend to do it.

Yes, I agree that spending time on social media depends on one's interest and purpose. The time spending pattern and its distribution are also much variable among the RG fellows.

I think one's success depends that how effectively s/he allocates the available time for productive and fruitful activities.

Yes, Ajay, one's success depends on how strategically and effectively one priorities and allocates the available time for productive and fruitful activities.

Only successful people allocate higher chunk of quality time for the top-value tasks and vice versa.

Yes, @Kamal, most of the RG fellows spend maximum time on ResearchGate due to large communication and interaction among the fellow members.

I agree with Prof. Kamal. Being with RG is a good investment of time. Interacting with so many wonderful friends and getting benefitted with their insightful and scholarly words is really a rewarding experience.

Teaching and research professionals are spending comparatively more time on RG.

There is a general consensus among the participants that they all spend maximum time on ResearchGate due to their different requirements/perception.

It depends on which network we use. For example, RG is the mainly network I use to enrich my knowledge and know good friends. So I think it is an investment.

Time spending on social sites, particularly on RG, is an investment for almost all the participants. However, their time spending patterns and distributions may not be the same.

This is matter convenience, utility, and spare time with the user for the social site one likes.

Whatever time I spend with RG is a beneficial investment for me. 

I think time spent on RG is a good investment in terms of increasing one's knowledge base by interacting professionals across the disciplines around the world.

Whether time spent on RG is a good investment, it depends on what type of professional is using RG.

Yes, like most of my dear RG fellows, time spent on RG is a very good investment for me as well.

What do you think my dear friends, how many RG members are present now, it is Sunday? 

Dear @Ljubomir, I think ResearchGate should modify its software to felicitate its users to know the total members connected at any point of time and it is not very difficult.

Dear Ajay, why should we know the total members of RG connected at any point of time. What purpose it will serve? Every member is using RG at his/her own convenience.

Actually this is just our curiosity to know the using pattern of RG members, otherwise it will not serve any specific purpose. Moreover, my post was in the response of one recent post #88 by dear @Ljubomir.

Dear Subhash, you are totally right. Why should we know numbers of just present members?

We can understand the using pattern of RG members by viewing how they are participating on RG. Very limited number of RG members are actively participating and interacting through Q/A platform.

Yes, because RG has very large users base (more than 5 million members) and all its members do not actively participate in Q/A and other activities. Even many of them are inactive for many months/years.

Spending time on RG is a great investment where we can learn and exchange knowledge.

Yes, Mohammad, sure spending time on RG is a great investment and RG is a good platform for learning and exchange of knowledge.

Dear @Demetris did not confirm if my answer to his question on page 5 of this thread is correct!

Furthermore, there were some threads with  good answers, related to the issue of time consuming at RG and social networks!

https://www.researchgate.net/post/Do_you_notice_that_your_students_spend_a_lot_of_time_on_social_networks_What_are_the_effects_that_you_noted_on_them

https://www.researchgate.net/post/Is_ResearchGate_time_consuming_for_you

Yes, @Ajay, Mohammad and all dear friends,  I spend as little time as possible on FB and RG.  But my students spend huge amounts of time on FB.  I really cannot afford to spend more time than this, because of the research and teaching related work, the marking, the writing etc.  I respect all of you who can be in many threads!

Besides, I need to exercise several days a week.  (I see that on RG, certain people downvote posts, and questions, but I don't think it's ethical to do this.  Do you agree that scientists should not be anonymous?  What do you think?)

Dear Miranda, I agree that everything should be openly discussed on RG and down voting should be removed. Nothing should be anonymous on RG.

Yes, scientists should not be anonymous. There must open discussion.

I think just removing the anonymity, stops the problem of down voting forever.