A1 Refereed original research article in a scientific journal
Social media activities in Finland: A population-level comparison
Authors: Ertiö Titiana, Kukkonen Iida, Räsänen Pekka
Publisher: SAGE Publications Ltd
Publication year: 2020
Journal: Convergence
Journal name in source: Convergence
Volume: 26
Issue: 1
First page : 193
Last page: 209
ISSN: 1354-8565
eISSN: 1748-7382
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/1354856518780463
In the Web 2.0 era, consumers of media are no longer mere recipients of
digital content, but rather active commentators and cocreators online.
However, the Internet rule predicts that 90% of users are passive
‘lurkers’, 9% edit content, and 1% actually create content. This study
investigates Finns’ social media activities that apply to content
creation, as well as the level of content engagement and sharing. The
data come from Statistics Finland and are representative of the Finnish
population between the ages of 16 and 74. The results show that Finnish
users perceive themselves predominantly as occasional commentators of
social media posts. Dissecting the social media activities users engage
in, commenting posts is the most popular activity. Gender, age, and
education best explain the differences between the types of social media
activities investigated. Overall, the study shows that Finns actively
engage in different types of online activities as well as the
pervasiveness of sociodemographic variables in Finland.