Would you start a relationship with someone you've NEVER met? One in seven people have partners they've only spoken to online

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Would you start a relationship with someone you've NEVER met? One in seven people have partners they've only spoken to online

Posted by sciencetech-blog on Friday, September 26, 2014 Label:

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'Catfishing' is the art of creating a fake online identity to scam a would-be lover into thinking you are someone else, before ever meeting.

The practice may seem odd to most people, but according to a survey, one in seven people have started an online relationship with someone they have never actually met.

A further 25 per cent admitted to having flirtatious conversations with somebody they had never met.

A survey of 2,000 UK respondents has revealed online trends in the nation. The research was carried out by satellite broadband provider Europasat. They found that one in seven people had started an online relationship with someone that had never met (stock image shown)

The research was carried out by Branded3 on behalf of satellite broadband provider Europasat, and involved 2,000 UK respondents.

It also indicated an online environment where more than a third of Facebook users said they have 'friends' they have never met in person.

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And four per cent claimed to be friends with only people they knew in real life.

Nearly half of all users, meanwhile, did not have any active privacy settings, while nearly a quarter said they were more confident speaking on social platforms than in real life.

Approximately a third of those polled said they would say things on social media that they normally wouldn't in real life.

More than a third of those surveyed also said they had Facebook 'friends' that they had never met in person. And only four per cent claimed to only be friends with people on Facebook that they knew in real life

The survey also looked at shopping habits online, with more than a third of people saying they would impulse buy when shopping online.

For news, 44 per cent of respondents used their social media accounts as a news source over actual news media.

Half of all the females surveyed said they found out about breaking news stories in this way.

And the majority of both males and females claimed they wouldn't last a day without using the web.

THE SURVEY RESULTS IN FULL

YouTube is the third most popular social media account, falling behind Facebook and Twitter, but ahead of Instagram, LinkedIn and Google+.

37 per cent of people claimed to have friends on Facebook that they've never actually met – and a quarter of these people speak to them on a regular basis.

Only 4 per cent of the population surveyed claimed to be friends with only people that they know in real life on Facebook.

A quarter of people with a Facebook account have had a conversation of a flirtatious nature online with somebody that they've never met in real life.

14 per cent of people surveyed have started an online relationship with somebody they've never actually met.

29 per cent of people believe that their social media platforms give them a mechanic to say things that they wouldn't usually say in real life, and 24 per cent of people feel more confident speaking on social media platforms.

44 per cent of the population use their social media accounts as a news source, over actual news media.

Only 57 per cent of the overall population have their social media accounts set to a private setting.

More people would struggle to live without their mobile phone (42 per cent) than their car (38 per cent).

37 per cent of the population surveyed find themselves more likely to impulse buy when shopping online.

The majority of the UK population (27 per cent) could only handle giving up internet access for one day.

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