How Do We Use Social Media?
Let’s get back to some basics.
We love to dive into the wild world of social media with you and take you through the nitty-gritty details. We’ve told you about social media and comparison, anxiety, self-esteem, FOMO, and sleep. We’ve talked about social media in education, at work and at home. We’ve even told you how Twitter could help detect depression!
This time, we’re going a little simpler. We’re going to talk about who uses which social media and why it matters. A pair of researchers took a representative sample of people and had them fill out questionnaires about their social media use.
So, let’s dive into their findings about all things social media and its users.
What Counts as Social Media?
Social media is more all-encompassing than one might think. We’re not just talking about Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter. Social media also includes podcasts, professional networking sites, video-sharing sites, photograph-sharing sites, music-sharing sites, blogs, microblogs, wikis, social bookmarking, and forums. Phew, I’m out of breath!
Two people with social media icons floating above
Most people understand the concept of podcasts, social networking sites (SNSs), and blogs, but here are some better-known examples of the others:
Professional networking sites: LinkedIn, Meetup, Xing
Video sharing sites: YouTube, TikTok, Flickr
Photograph sharing sites: Instagram, Pinterest, Shutterfly
Music sharing sites: Soundcloud, Spotify, Pandora, Apple Music
Microblogs: a mix of social media and bite-sized blogging, like Twitter
Social bookmarking sites allow users to categorize sites based on keywords
Wikis: it’s in the name—Wikipedia, Wikihow, Wikitravel, Wiktionary, etc.
Forums: a place for people to share ideas, experiences, and information, including Discourse, Reddit, or Quora
What Are the Most Common Social Media?
The participants answered a questionnaire about how frequently they use each type of social media. Their options were “always,” “frequently,” “seldom,” “rarely,” “never,” or “no idea.”
The most common social media sites by far are social networking sites. 40.4% of participants in this study used social media “always,” and 28.9% used it “frequently.” Next was video sharing sites—because who doesn’t love to be sent a funny TikTok or YouTube video to watch?
On the other hand, nearly half of the participants didn’t even know what social bookmarking sites were. In fact, only 1% of participants used them frequently.
Who Is Using Social Media?
Thanks to these researchers, we can determine who is using which social media types the most.
First, they considered gender. The difference between men and women was generally quite small (for example: 146 women compared to 149 men reported using blogs). Women only used SNSs and video-sharing sites more than men.
Now, let’s talk about age. For the most part, social media popularity trended downward as age trended upward. The only exceptions to this were podcasts and microblogs, with 55 to 69-year-olds enjoying them more than their younger counterparts. The youngest age groups, ages 15-24 and 25-34, dominated SNS use. Those who used professional networking sites most were those developing their careers and most familiar with social media—ages 25-34.
Next, comes education. Those who had postgraduate degrees were the most popular users of professional networking sites, podcasts, photograph-sharing sites, music-sharing sites, and social bookmarking. They tended to optimize social media for practical use rather than entertainment purposes. SNSs, video-sharing sites, and microblogs were most popular for those with a primary education.
One key takeaway from all of this is that social media use often reflects your stage in life. Age, gender, and education can all change how and what social media you use. People in their late 20s with a university degree will most likely be focusing on professional networking sites, while people in high school will be using social networking sites the most.
What can we do with this information? Well, it shows that the differences between gender and education are small, but the trends in age are clear. Those who grew up with the internet use it quite consistently in most categories, while older adults tend towards social media for connection and information.
Person climbing a bar graph
For now, we know which platforms make sense for your stage of life. So young adults, keep networking! Teens, keep sharing videos and making friends! And older adults, keep learning and connecting! As long as you’re using social media in healthy, productive ways, keep doing you. We’ll see you all online! 🙂
Study Objectives & Methods
Social Media Usage Behaviours of Individuals: An Application in Eskişehir.
N. Gizem Koçak, PhD; Mine Oyman, PhD.
Published in the International Journal of Business and Social Science.
This pair of researchers studied the behaviours of social media users, hoping to gain some insight into social media usage behaviours. To do this, they gathered a representative sample of 401 people ages 15 - 69. The participants answered questionnaires about social media use, age, gender, and education level. Using this, the researchers were able to make conclusions about who is using what types of social media.