As part of our #SocialSurfing endeavour, we carried out a small survey of a select group of people, in order to better understand holistically, the usage and perception of social media, as well as issues of safety which crop up in the discussion pertaining to social media. Let us take a look at the major findings of this survey.
There were a total of 563 people who took the survey.
The maximum number of respondents fell in the age range of 18 to 25 years.
One of the questions put forth in the survey was which social media platforms respondents use. It was found that Facebook is the most popular, followed by Whatsapp. This is then followed by Instagram, Google, Twitter, Snapchat and Tumblr. Other platforms such as Linkedin, Quora, Viber, Skype, Goodreads, etc, have fewer users.
We also asked what devices do respondents use social media on, and the most popular were mobiles and computers.
When asked if respondents prefer to state their relationship status on various social media platforms, it was revealed that many are not comfortable with stating their relationship status on social media.
The survey had a number of questions on the experience of safety on social media. One question put forth was whether respondents feel safe on social media. Mixed responses were obtained on this question.
When we asked if respondents felt whether social media is safe for everyone to use, a majority of them felt it wasn’t. The reason generally given was that it is not safe for the women to use, as a lot of abuse happens over social media.
We also asked some questions regarding the experience of harassment on social media.
When discussing harassment, we also asked the respondents who they turned to for help in case of harassment on social media platforms. The majority preferred to turn to a friend, followed closely by the Help Centre (on Facebook) and their own families.
Our survey on #SocialSurfing can be considered to be a pilot of sorts, in the capturing of the overall safety experience of social media users. As social media brings the world closer in all respects, it is also important for the users and developers of social media tools to understand its perils, and take necessary steps to protect themselves, while enjoying the benefits of social media.
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