1. Introduction
Research Objective The Singapore Youth and Social Media survey aimed to find out about Singapore Youth’s usage patterns, security and privacy, and general attitudes towards social media.
2. Methodology
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The Singapore Youth and Social Media survey was administered on a representative cross-section of 800 Singapore youth aged between 15 and 34* years old. Face-toface survey interviews were carried out by teams of second year Media and Communication students working in groups of between 4 and 6 people at high human traffic areas including HDB town centres, bus terminals, MRT stations, shopping centres and the central business district. Student surveyors were instructed to avoid places which had homogeneous people groups such as institutions of higher learning, offices, factories and schools to better ensure a representative sample. The National Youth Council has defined youth as those between 15 to 34 years old.
AGE GROUP:
- 15 – 19 M - 103, F - 88
- 20 – 24 M - 98, F - 106
- 25 – 29 M - 98, F - 106
- 30 – 34 M - 87, F - 104
(The above quota sample is derived from statistics found in the Yearbook of Statistics Singapore 2009, Singapore Residents by Age Group And Sex, End June 2008) The survey was administered from June to July 2009. Completed survey questionnaires were compiled, tabulated and analysed quantitatively using the SPSS statistical package.
Please note that due to rounding off, figures may not add up to 100%. Unless otherwise stated, the 800 respondents answered all the questions. Respondents were asked a screener question of whether they used social media before they were surveyed. The results were cross-tabulated according to age and gender. Only significant findings are discussed in this report.
3. Usage of Social Media
In this section, respondents were asked a series of questions in relation to their usage of social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, Youtube and etc. Social media sites that youth go to on a regular basis Daily
Friendster | MySpace | Wikipedia | Bebo | Plurk | Hi5 | Blogs | YouTube | Flickr | Last.fm | |||
Daily | 64% | 9% | 6% | 5% | 17% | 1% | 1% | 1% | 30% | 35% | 11% | 16% |
Weekly | 24% | 8% | 9% | 4% | 31% | 1% | 1% | 1% | 25% | 36% | 19% | 19% |
Monthly | 6% | 3% | 12% | 5% | 17% | 2% | 2% | 3% | 10% | 13% | 18% | 12% |
Rarely | 4% | 8% | 36% | 16% | 16% | 6% | 6% | 12% | 22% | 8% | 25% | 17% |
Don’t go | 4% | 72% | 38% | 71% | 19% | 90% | 90% | 84% | 13% | 8% | 27% | 37% |
It can be seen that respondents go to Facebook most regularly with 64% of respondents going to it daily and 24% of respondents going to it weekly. This is followed by Youtube with 35% of the respondents going to it daily and a similar number (36%) going to it weekly. 30% of the respondents go to blogs daily and 25% of the respondents go to blogs weekly.
In terms of usage of Facebook, we can see that a greater proportion of the younger respondents from the 15-24 age group go to Facebook daily compared to the respondents aged 25-34. Instead of going to Facebook daily, the older respondents tend to go to Facebook on a weekly or monthly basis. In terms of going to Youtube, similar to going to Facebook, a greater proportion of the younger respondents from the 15-24 age group frequent Youtube daily compared to the respondents aged 25-34.
Reasons as to why youth have a social networking account (like Facebook etc):
To keep in touch with friends and re-connect with old friends - 751
To stay in touch with the latest news and trends - 360
To make new friends - 263
Friends’ influence - 243
To play the games - 240
To build contacts for my career or business - 179
To create awareness for my ideas, opinions, talents etc. - 173
Our respondents were asked to tick the top three reasons as to why they have a social networking account from a list given. An overwhelming 93% of the 800 respondents said that they have a social networking account to keep in touch with friends and re-connect with old friends. This is followed by to stay in touch with the latest news and trends and to make new friends.
Taking a look at the specific things that youth do daily on social media sites, we can see that there are certain things that younger respondents tend to do compared to older respondents. These include watch video clips online, reading blogs, writing blog entries, updating their profile on social networking site, visiting a friend’s profile on social networking site, leaving comments on blogs as well as social networking sites, doing quizzes and playing games on social networking site and listening to music on livestreaming music sites.
About 4 in 10 respondents aged 15-19 tend to spend about 4-6 hours online daily. It is interesting to note that while 21% and 23% of the younger respondents aged 1519 and 20-24 respectively spent more than 6 hours online daily, older respondents are not that far behind with 18% of the 25-29 year olds and 16% of the 30-34 year olds saying that they spend more than 6 hours online daily.
4. Security & Privacy
Respondents were asked about the type of information that they reveal about themselves on social networking sites.
The majority of our respondents think nothing of revealing their name, age, gender, ethnicity, date of birth, email address, marital status and personality attributes. It is interesting to note that 9% of respondents leave their contact number and 5% of respondents leave their home address on social networking sites.
The majority of the respondents add people that they know in real life, siblings, colleagues and relatives as friends on social networking sites. About a third of the respondents (33%) would add their parents on social networking sites. A similar number of the respondents (35%) would add strangers. The older the respondents, the less likely they are to add their siblings as friends on social networking sites. The younger respondents aged 15-19 have a greater tendency to add strangers on social networking sites.
The 35% of respondents (N=276) who would add strangers were asked to choose from a list of reasons why they would add strangers on social networking sites. They were asked to tick all the relevant reasons. 77% of respondents added strangers because the strangers added them first. 71% of respondents added strangers based on mutual friends. 47% of respondents added strangers because they had the same interests and 43% of respondents added strangers because of how the strangers’ look. More male respondents tend to add strangers on social networking sites based on looks and if they shared the same interests.
I have modified the I have dated a stranger I privacy settings for my met on a social networking site account I have been sexually harassed on social networking sites
I have conducted I have c ond ucted research on a research on a prospective employer on prospective employee on social networking sites social networking sites From the charts above, 70% of respondents have modified their privacy settings for their social networking account. They have also conducted research on prospective employers and employees using social networking sites. 18% have dated a stranger that they met through a social networking site and 9% of respondents said that they have been sexually harassed on social networking sites.
20% of male respondents have dated a stranger they met on a social networking sites compared to 15% of the female respondents who have done so.
5. General Attitudes
In this section, respondents were asked a series of questions in relation to their attitudes and beliefs while using online social networking tools. To what extent do you agree or disagree with the following statements?
Respondents were asked to agree or disagree with the statement: “I am addicted to social media tools. ” 34% of the 800 respondents strongly agree or agree with the statement while 32% of them strongly disagree or disagree.
Within all the respondents who spend less than 1 hour on the internet, 63% of them disagree or strong disagree with the statement that they are addicted to social media tools. Within all the respondents who spend more than 6 hours online daily, 51% of them agree or strong agree with the statement that they are addicted to social media tools.
The younger respondents aged 15-24 tend to strongly agree/agree with the statement that they are addicted to social media tools as opposed to the older respondents. 44% of the respondents aged 15-24 strongly agree/agree with the statement as opposed to 24% of the respondents aged 30-34 who strongly agree/agree with the statement "The number of friends a user has is a reflection of his/her popularity".
Respondents were asked to agree or disagree with the statement: “I love social media tools because they broaden my social circle. ” 42% of them strongly agree/agree whilst 18% of them strongly disagree/disagree. 40% of the respondents remained neutral about the statement.
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