Pew Internet Research has released the results of study which reveals the attitudes and inclinations of social networkers and how they feel about the environment on sites like Facebook, Twitter, and Linkedin. The authors of the study use the term climate as a synonym for environment and hope to discover the emotional tone the majority encounter while using social networking sites.

The results are based on responses from adults (18 and over) and the sample includes responses from 2,260 adults via telephone interviews conducted in Spanish and English between july 25th and August 26th of 2011. The survey will also serve as a basis for comparing adults perceptions to teenage perceptions (another study Pew carried out).

Surprisingly, most users report that their experiences are overwhelmingly positive (85%) and only a small percentage (5%) said that they witnessed mostly unkind behavior. Almost 70 % said that their social networking experiences made them feel good about themselves. Doesn’t sound too bad so far.

On the opposite end of the spectrum, almost 50% agreed that they had witnessed cruel or outright mean behavior while using sites. In fact, 5% said that they never encountered generous behavior or comments while using sites. 18% report they only see helpful behavior once in a while.

Also of interest, is that almost three fourths of those sampled claim that they encountered offense content only once in a while or never while on social networking sites. When witnessing social attacks on sites, 26% of women will tell the attacker to stop, while only 19% of men will do the same. Interesting! Almost the same percentages report that they actually defend the attacked party.

Well there you have it, most adults are having positive experiences while networking on social sites. I am curious to see the comparisons once Pew releases the teenage versus adult study.