A Study of Facebook use in Canada
Figure 3.0: How often do you check you Facebook account? by Age Group (Source: Abacus Data, n=1,362) 60+
17%
45-59
1%
30-44
3%
18-29
3%
33%
20%
0%
50%
38%
27%
42%
40%
42%
20% I'm Always On
31%
40%
40%
60%
Multiple Times Per Day
15%
80% Daily
100% Weekly
Delving further into usage patterns, Figure 3.1 displays the results of a statement test. We presented respondents with four statements: “Sharing any kind of personal information online is too much of a risk for me”; “I share selected personal information with my family and friends via Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, or a personal website”; “I readily share information. I am not concerned with privacy risks, as only my friends want to see what I share online”; and “I don‟t use the internet for personal networking or social reasons”. Continuing the trend, milliennials were most likely to share information, and least likely to not be involved in social media. As age increased, respondents were more likely to say that they do not use social media, but they were also more likely to feel that sharing information online is too risky. This could be indicative of a fundamental, generational attitudinal difference. Among other things, sharing information online can be a sign of comfort with the internet as a social medium, or as an acceptance of social networking as a means of keeping in touch with friends on a regular basis. Figure 3.1 indicates that 75% of millennials share some degree of information online. It is this sort of comfort with a new technology that can lead to natural adoption – using Facebook simply as another, natural, means of communication.
Insight by Abacus Data Inc.
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