Last week I conducted a short survey asking participants about their social media usage and privacy concerns. The results are in.
The following questions were asked:
1. In a typical day how much time do you spend using social networking websites?
- Did you feel pressure to use/join social media?
- Do you follow news coverage on any of the following social media platforms?
- Is social media the only way you receive news?
- Do you stay on social media because of FOMO- Fear of Missing Out?
- Are you on more than one social media platform?
- Are you concerned about privacy on social media?
- Are you concerned about targeted ads?
THE RESULTS:
The average daily use of social media was 2 hours however one participant stated that they used social media for 12 hours a day which suggests that perhaps they may also use social media in a professional capacity as well as for personal use.
20 percent of respondents stated that they felt pressure to use and/or join social media. 80% did not however they stated that it did make it easier to be connected to others.
86 percent used Facebook to follow news coverage, with Instagram the second most popular platform. I found this surprising as I did not really consider Instagram a platform for news. Microblogging site Twitter came in fourth behind Reddit. Twitter is a popular medium for journalists and suggests that perhaps journalists are not on the right platform or need to adopt Instagram to reach a wider audience.
I was also very surprised to discover that 26.67% rely solely on social media platforms for their news coverage and do not seek out other platforms whether that be TV, radio, online newspapers or traditional newspapers.
40 percent of respondents agreed with the statement that they do indeed stay on social media because of FOMO- Fear of Missing Out. 60% did not agree.
86 percent were on more than one platform which was not all that surprising.
40 percent were worried about their privacy online. Some of the comments made were:
-Yes, mainly concerned about how the social media platforms are using the information they gather on their users.
-No I usually don’t put much on there that is concerning
-Not really. It’s amazing how well you can target ads and make the experience of using social media super relevant to the user. I don’t have any issue with privacy as each platform’s settings control this – though Facebook could allow slightly more control with what’s visible and what’s not.
-Yes, but privacy can be kept if done right. I dont believe many people know or bother which does concern me
-No. They know what we do nevertheless.
-Very much so, but more hacking into my accounts. I only share what I’m willing to.
-Definitely. Especially since I have a child.
When asked about targeted ads the results were mixed. 46.67% were concerned about targeted ads while 53.33% were not worried about targeted ads suggesting that they feel it ads to their online experience.
Thanks everyone for taking part in my online Survey Monkey. It was really interesting insight into the average social media usage, privacy concerns and also what mediums are being used for news coverage.
1501LHS New Comm Tech 