Social media activities in Finland: A population-level comparison

In the Web 2.0 era, consumers of media are no longer mere recipients of digital content, but rather active commentators and cocreators online. However, the Internet rule predicts that 90% of users are passive ‘lurkers’, 9% edit content, and 1% actually create content. This study investigates Finns’ social media activities that apply to content creation, as well as the level of content engagement and sharing. The data come from Statistics Finland and are representative of the Finnish population between the ages of 16 and 74. The results show that Finnish users perceive themselves predominantly as occasional commentators of social media posts. Dissecting the social media activities users engage in, commenting posts is the most popular activity. Gender, age, and education best explain the differences between the types of social media activities investigated. Overall, the study shows that Finns actively engage in different types of online activities as well as the pervasiveness of sociodemographic variables in Finland.