Representativeness of Social Media in Great Britain: Investigating Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Pinterest, Google+, and Instagram. (June 2017)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Blank, Grant; Lutz, Christoph
• Other Names: Gruzd Anatoliy guest-editor.; Jacobson Jenna guest-editor.; Wellman Barry guest-editor.; Mai Philip H. guest-editor.
• Is Part Of: American behavioral scientist. Volume 61:Number 7(2017)
• Page Start: 741
• Page End: 756
• Publication Date: 2017-06
• Subjects: digital divide -- representativeness -- social media -- Facebook -- Twitter -- LinkedIn -- Instagram -- Pinterest -- Google+; Social sciences -- Periodicals; Political science -- Periodicals; United States -- Social conditions -- Periodicals; United States -- Politics and government -- Periodicals; 300
• DOI: 10.1177/0002764217717559
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0002-7642

Abstract

Sociological studies show that Internet access, skills, uses, and outcomes vary between different population segments. However, we lack differentiated statistical evidence of the social characteristics of users of distinct social media platforms. We address this issue using a representative survey of Great Britain and investigate the social characteristics of six major social media platforms. We find that age and socioeconomic status are driving forces of several—but not all—of these platforms. The findings suggest that no social media platform is representative of the general population. The unrepresentativeness has major implications for research that uses social media as a data source. Social media data cannot be used to generalize to any population other than themselves.