New research charts changing social media landscape

Despite concerns fake news is flooding the Internet, Canadians are showing no signs of slowing their usage of social media. A new survey (external link)  released by the Social Media Lab at Ryerson University offers an in-depth look into the state of social media in Canada. It found that 94 per cent of adults who use the Internet have at least one social media account.

“Canada is one of the most connected countries in the world,” says Anatoliy Gruzd, Canada Research Chair and director of research at the Social Media Lab (external link) . “It’s critical for policy makers and others to have a better grasp of what social media platforms Canadians are using to connect and converse with one another.” The Social Media Lab is an interdisciplinary research lab at Ted Rogers School of Management at Ryerson University.

Co-authored by Anatoliy Gruzd, Jenna Jacobson, and Philip Mai at Ryerson University, and Elizabeth Dubois at the University of Ottawa, the study surveyed 1,500 Canadians in 2017. Internet users aged 18 and older were asked a range of questions about their social media use. Facebook was the most popular social media platform with 84 per cent of online Canadian adults reporting they have a Facebook account. And despite concerns that young people are leaving the social networking giant, the study found 95 per cent of young adults aged 18-24 were on Facebook.

Photo-sharing favourites Pinterest and Instagram, were the fifth and sixth most popular social media platforms with 38 per cent and 37 per cent, respectively, of online Canadians reporting an account. Reddit was the least popular platform of those included in the report with only 9 per cent of online Canadian adults using the discussion website.