While social media has rapidly integrated itself into our everyday personal and professional lives, with a quarter of us belonging to at least two social networks, it appears that, for the moment at least, we still prefer engaging with friends, family and colleagues face-to-face than we do online.

Seven out of ten respondents to a recent study said that conversations with both individuals (72 percent) and small groups (70 percent) are richer when they occur in person than online, and two-thirds (67 percent) said that they do not use social media for any business or professional purposes.

Just a little over one-third (37 percent) said that social media has improved the way that they communicate with people in their personal life, and less than one-quarter (23 percent) said that these channels have improved their business or professional relationships.