STUDY: Travel is the main theme among Facebook posts

But, according to new research, travel also dominates our lives when it comes to social media and keeping in touch with friends and contacts online.

A study by Facebook into the habits of users who have been on holiday in the last 12 months has found that travel is the dominant theme among posts and updates.

The social-media behemoth looked at the activity of 3000 regular users, and found that 42 per cent of stories on their timelines were tied in to travel – whether photographs uploaded on their last jaunt overseas, or simple day-dreaming about the need to get away.

The research also found that just over half of the users whose online movements were analysed (51 per cent) put posts about 'holidays' as one of their top three types – above food, pets, family life, babies and even weddings.

The figures show that, even when we are not travelling or intending to travel, we are heading to Facebook for a vicarious fix of the exotic.

According to the results, 83 per cent of us enjoy viewing holiday photos posted by friends and family, and will look at them even if we are not planning a holiday ourselves.

And over half of those surveyed – 52 per cent – said that, thanks to postings of Facebook, they start dreaming of holidays even when they do not have a trip in the diary.

In contrast, Facebook is also a dominant factor in our lives on those all too rare occasions when we are packing the suitcase or booking a taxi to the airport.

The analysis revealed that 97 per cent of those surveyed use Facebook if they need to find out information – news, travel tips, weather – while they are away.

It also underlined that a huge proportion of users – 91 per cent – are unable to divorce themselves from social media, and will access Facebook at least twice while on holiday.

And even if they can switch off during a week on the beach, the statistics showed that almost all of those analysed – 99 per cent – post about their break on Facebook as soon as they are back from their holiday, with 32 per cent of users so keen to keep friends and family updated online that they will do so before they are home from the airport.

"It [travel] is the most shared topic," says Tracy Yaverbaun, Facebook's group director of retail, travel, luxury and fashion. "We [have been] seeing much more engagement from our users talking about and sharing their experiences of travel."