• by Laurie Sullivan , Staff Writer @lauriesullivan, August 1, 2012

Some 62% of adults say they’re afraid of missing news or an important event if they don't keep an eye on their social network  pages, according to the 2012 "Connecting and Communicating Online: State of Social Media" study.

Think of the data and the keywords attached to each click in Google+, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest and other social sites. Google will capitalize and improve ad targeting across its engine, affiliates and partners, while Facebook tries to cozy up to one of its investors, Microsoft.

Microsoft on Monday added a tagging feature to Bing that allows friends to find friends while on the search engine and solicit their opinion. Permission granted. A user's question posts on his or her Facebook timeline, and tagged friends get a notification so they can provide answers. What happened to email?

Apparently consumers are more attached to their social network pages, than to email -- especially teenagers, who often tell me they visit Facebook several times a day, but their email address maybe once a week. In the social media study mentioned above, commissioned by MyLife.com and conducted by Harris Interactive, nearly 40% of those frequenting social sites say they would rather undertake unpleasant or potentially painful activities before they would give up their social network profiles.

The study found 38% of those ages 18 to 34 log onto their social network as soon as they awake, but before checking email. Not only are consumers afraid they will miss a news event,  but the younger generation often checks in with their friends and followers online before they’ve even rubbed the sleep from their eyes. And 27% send more messages from within their social network than from their primary email account.

Ironically, Facebook isn't the most popular social network when people think about consuming or sharing content.  Some 68% of survey participants say they use LinkedIn mainly to consume content, followed by YouTube at 57% and Twitter at 53%. Foursquare even leads Facebook, 44% vs. 17%, when it comes to the social network adults use primarily just for sharing. Pinterest at 48% edged out Facebook at 46% as the site where people consume and share content equally. Tumblr was a close third at 41%.