England is Top EU country for social networking

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According to a recent article in the Times England is top EU country for social networking with 5.6 hrs a month spent on social networking websites such as Facebook:

Britons are the ‘social networking’ champions of Europe, displaying a far greater appetite for websites such as Facebook, MySpace and Bebo than fellow citizens on the continent.

British internet users spent an average of 5.8 hours a month – about a 11 minutes a day – on such sites, in comparison with their nearest rivals the Germans, who spent 3.1 hours a month (6 minutes a day), according to research.

source It’s an interesting figure. Why would England be the top country for social networking? Does university attendance and movement from town to town make a difference? Does the fact that people are so spread across London mean that they are more inclined to stay in touch via electronic methods rather than in person?

I’d like more information on how they came up with these figures.