Who Uses Social Media?

Last night in BSMRCCE we talked about who uses social media… and who doesn’t. A couple interesting points came up.

On one hand, sometimes people say they don’t use social media, but what they really mean is they don’t actively participate on the “main channels.” They might not tweet or have a Facebook account, for example. But if you expand the definition of social media (which we do in BSMRCCE) to include any platform were you can have reciprocal conversations out in public, fewer people are true online isolationists (even if they’re mostly lurkers).

On the other hand, we shouldn’t get stuck thinking everyone has the same access to social media we do. People who live in areas where internet access is slower (or more expensive) probably don’t spend as much time interacting online. Even in the cities, where broadband and cellular access is pretty ubiquitous, parts of our population don’t have the financial resources to take advantage.

It’s worth keeping an open mind (and occasionally questioning our assumptions) about who really makes up our online communities.

Image from Takashi Hososhima on Flickr.