Many online friends have never met each other

According to a recent research many people keep friends in their social network contact lists while they have never met with each other. Data provided by Geomium shows that 9% of web users have never met a quarter of their online friends. The location based service says that it has revealed the phenomenon of "faceless friends" or people that are part of an online friendship circle but have never met face-to-face.

"These are worrying findings -- social networks are meant to facilitate socializing, not replace it," said Geomium CEO, Michael Ferguson.

"The idea of only communicating online is one that many people would be uncomfortable with. Social networks can be a great way of staying in touch but you can't beat actually meeting people."

Over a third of 18- to 24-year-olds said they couldn't imagine a world without social networking while four in ten said social network sites were the main way in which they organize their social life.

However, just 1 percent of the over 60s use social networks to organize their social life.