Let's stay on Facebook all day

There is a term called technological lock-in which is the idea that the more society uses a certain technology, they would be more unlikely to switch. This concept is evident in the QWERTY keyboard layout, originally used for typewriters in the 1870s is still used in the most advanced computers today despite other alternatives.

According to ComScore director, Andrew Lipsman, Facebook has achieved this point where it is self sustaining.

"The more people who come into the network, the more connected they become to each other and there actually becomes a greater cost to leaving the network."

According to statistics released by ComScore, users stay on Facebook longer than any other social network, averaging 246.9 minutes in December, compared to 112.7 minutes on MySpace and 24.3 minutes on Twitter.

"At some point it becomes a critical mass," Mr Lipsman said. "It becomes so strong that it’s difficult to unlock."

Tim Groeling, a professor of communication studies at UCLA, said that because it was possible to sign up for Facebook while keeping accounts on other sites.

"MySpace wasn't focused as much on the social networking aspect, which they seem to enjoy,” he said.

“It wasn't quite the tight-knit social machine that Facebook seems to be.

"Facebook has a certain amount of lock-in that's going to be hard for people to get past. It's possible it could happen, but it has to overcome a high threshold of user cost. It's their game to lose at this point."

Facebook would have to continue to keep the site exciting with various new features and applications to keep existing users interested and to attract new users. The main thing is to have a site that is able to fulfill what the users are looking for.