I have always been confounded as to why the media hasten to report a "Twitter Storm" and present it as a certain indicator of overwhelming public opinion as I don't know a single person who uses Twitter. Some interesting numbers come out of a recent survey by Australia's ABC:
It indicates that, at best, 14% of Australians are using Twitter and they will be a very self-selecting crowd I have no doubt. So the press, businesses and government should assign the level of value to the Twits they deserves and not a drop more.
Quote from the ABC article:
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Hardly anyone's on Twitter
Twitter, the platform most regularly cited in media reporting and disparaged or invoked by Australian politicians, has a small and specialised footprint.
I was keen to give my kids a break from screens. Parenting win! But what I discovered about myself far outweighed anything I learnt about them.
Sixty-seven per cent of respondents say they "never" use Twitter, and another 18 per cent say they do not use it often. Only 6 per cent say they use it "very often", with 8 per cent using it "somewhat often". Usage across all demographics is low, but Twitter use increases slightly with take-home income (the highest Twitter use is in those earning more than $2,500 per week) and political preference (74 per cent of LNP voters say they "never" use Twitter, but that drops to 62 per cent among ALP voters and 53 per cent among Greens voters).
Along with Twitter in the least-used category sits Reddit, with an identical 6 per cent of Australians who use it "very often", and TikTok, which is a staple for 3 per cent of respondents. TikTok is used "very often" by 13 per cent of 18-24-year-olds, but peters out among older respondents, aside of course from the intriguing 1 per cent of 50-64-year-olds who say they use it "very often" and whose dance posts should theoretically be easy to spot. Of course, the Australia Talks survey was fielded to respondents 18 years and over, which excludes a key part of TikTok's user base.
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"I beseech you in the bowels of Christ think it possible you may be mistaken"
Oliver Cromwell, 3rd August 1650 - in a letter to the General Assembly of the Kirk of Scotland
And yet the Twitterverse has so much 'influence'. Banks and insurance companies jump when Twitter lights up about their lending or insurance clients. Are those on Twitter smarter than those reacting to what Twitter says?
Social media should be banned. It makes people more stupid.
I think this will be discussed this evening on Australia Debates, ABC kids or something like that.
Totally agree. Facebook is without a doubt the preferred tool for many dolts. I do not use any social media, apart from Farcebook marketplace. Even then there are so complete f wits advertising scammy deals!!
I dont think it makes them any more stupid. It just highlights what a sad individual they are when their life centres around a pixelated screen.
Like or not, use it or not, Twitter is huge and popular (but not the biggest). I'm not a Twitter user but occasionally get to see things reposted and it's not all garbage or even remotely contentious. When this ban on social media hits, will it start with the oldest platforms or newest platforms ? If it's the former, say your goodbyes now.
Craig, Yes, 14% of Australians are Twitter users and that's a substantial number really. Popularity is a relative measure. At 14%, Twitter ranks higher than VB which at 12% is Australia's market leader. No one would question whether VB was a popular beer. The impact of contentious and/or remotely interesting Tweets is much greater and seen by more than 14% because many of them are reposted outside the platform. Twitter users tend to be younger compared to Facebook, about 90 use the platform to get a heads-up on current issues and don't routinely create content but repost instead and only 1 in 5 use Twitter to routinely contact family & friends. Compare this to Facebook which has about 5x the users in Australia and 3x worldwide where users tend to be older than Twitter users, look for aggregated news content and 9 out of 10 use FB to routinely contact family and friends. The selective sharing outside Twitter to other platforms is the exactly why world leaders and businesses use Twitter. They're far from twits. Well, not all of them.
We need to take the results of the ABC survey with a healthy dose of "reality-check".
The survey represents a snapshot of the opinions of ABC watchers/listeners/readers. As such, it is actually a snapshot of a sub-group of the population.
Yes, it has some validity, but does not mean generalised conclusions should actually be drawn from the data.
"Social media should be banned. It makes people more stupid."
Yes, but those of us who are much less stupid than the average person can afford to end up slightly stupider
