Social Networking, a Mystery for Half the Population

A survey performed by research company Synovate showed that 58% of the people questioned didn't even know what a social network was. This result is all the more surprising given the fact that, nowadays, social networking is considered, among people with an Internet connection, to be as popular as, say, email.

The survey took place in 17 countries, the inhabitants of the Netherlands being the most social networking savvy. Eighty-nine percent of them answered in the positive to the question of the operator, of whether they knew what social networking was. Japan came in second, with 71% affirmative answers, followed by the US, with a 70% rate of knowledge of social networks among the respondents.

Reading into the statements released by the company after the survey, officials probably expected more Americans to be aware of the technological advancements regarding socializing. Synovate's Senior Vice President of the US-based Consumer Insights group, Bob Michaels, also offered an explanation for the US being topped by the other two countries. “While a majority of Americans have access to computers there are still others, particularly seniors and immigrants, who do not. Online social networking just is not part of their world.”

Twenty-six percent of the 13,000 respondents said they were members of a social network. Here too, the Netherlands took the lead again, with a 49% rate of social networking, being followed by the United Arab Emirates (46%), Canada (44%), and the US (40%). The positioning of the first runner-up is perhaps the most surprising, but it can be easily explained – in a country where traditions sometimes shape personal relationships, the online space is the only one that allows uncensored socializing.

The survey also showed that people have gradually lost their interest in online social networking. 36% of the current members said that their interest level was dropping. The most weary of Facebook, MySpace & co. were the Japanese users, 55% of them saying that social networks had lost the importance they once had. Slovakia came in second, with 48%, followed by Canada, with 47%. Oppositely, Indonesian and French users said that their interest was on the increase (82% and 79% respectively).

“When you're in the world of marketing — reading about it, planning campaigns, researching people — it's sometimes easy to overlook the basics. So we started our study by simply asking 'do you know what online social networking is?' And that's where our first myth was debunked. It turns out social networking is not taking over the world. Well, not yet anyway.” Global Head of Media Research for Synovate, Steve Garton, concluded by saying.

From Sitepoint