Pure Telecom, the Irish-owned telecoms provider, has announced new results from its annual Connected Lives survey, which reveals that nearly one-in-four social media users (24%) have quit a social media platform because they disapprove of its owner, while 29% are considering doing so.
The nationally representative survey of 1,001 adults in Ireland was conducted by Censuswide on behalf of Pure Telecom. The research suggests that ongoing debates around platform ownership may be negatively influencing user sentiment, with 67% expressing concern over who owns the platforms they use, versus 33% who said it doesn’t bother them. Social media users aged 18 to 24 are the most likely to turn their back on platforms due to ownership concerns, with 28% having already done so and 37% considering it.
The research found that the majority of social media users (62%) are concerned about the personal information that platforms have stored about them, as they worry how the platform owner might use it. As such, 50% of users have updated their privacy settings in the past 12 months.
Concerns surrounding platform ownership have led many to consider an alternative social media network and 64% of social media users expressed an interest in signing up to an ‘ethical’ platform. However, many social media users find this prospect too idealistic, with 54% believing no such platform could ever exist.
Pure Telecom’s research also explored what people are posting on social media – and how much doctoring is happening beforehand. Excluding filters, over a third (37%) of social media users admit to editing their photos. Interestingly, this was 10% more prevalent in men (43%) than women (34%). Of those who edit their photos, the top edited features are skin tone (23%), lines and wrinkles (17%) and facial features (15%).
In addition to this, 24% of social media users admit to travelling somewhere primarily to get photos for social media, and the number of photos stored in people’s smartphone libraries averages at more than 7,500.
Paul Connell, CEO, Pure Telecom said: “Social media ownership has become a divisive topic and it’s interesting to see how the public personas of some owners are impacting the popularity of the social networks they lead. As concerns grow around data security and how ownership impacts personal privacy, our research indicates that users are losing faith in some platforms.
“Despite this ongoing concern, our research found that 98% of adults are social media users, showing that people continue to seek online connections. At Pure Telecom, we are passionate about keeping those connections alive and delivering real value to individuals, households and businesses across Ireland.”
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