The Internet in Australia survey, as part of the World Internet Project, has shown that Australians are at the international forefront of social networking.

Social leaders

The survey shows that Australia has the highest proportion of daily internet social network users, compared to countries such as New Zealand, the UK, Spain, Poland, Sweden, Switzerland and Mexico.

Come together

Despite the common perception that computers are isolating people from one another, Professor Julian Thomas and Mr Scott Ewing from the ARC Centre of Excellence for Creative Industries and Innovation (CCI) at Swinburne University believe there is strong evidence that they are actually bringing them closer together.

“In our survey of 1000 Australians, two thirds of internet users say their online activity has not changed the amount of time they spend with their family, and eight in ten said there was no change in their level of face-to-face contact with their friends,” Professor Thomas said.

The findings indicated that 62 per cent of respondents saw an increase in interaction with their family after connecting to the internet, and 31 per cent thought contact with their friends greatly increased with internet access.

“With more social media tools, digital devices and affordable bandwidth, people can carry the technology around,” Mr Ewing added.

“This means that being online doesn't stop us from spending time with others. In fact, as more people use social media sites to organise meet ups or send out invitations to social events, those who are not on these sites are more likely to miss out.”

Information source

In addition to being a communication tool, Professor Thomas also believes that social media has become a new source of information.

“People are using social media to share their own work, point each other to interesting articles, books, movies or comments on recent events. This shows that they are no longer passive users of the internet.”

Professor Thomas highlighted how social networking encourages users to create and share creative work, and that the sharing of pictures and videos will increase with time.

“The internet also encourages them to produce and share creative work – Australians are sharing more pictures and photographs online, with 51 per cent of internet users doing so,” Professor Thomas said.

“The proportion of users who post videos also continues to grow strongly – climbing from five per cent in 2007 to 17.5 per cent in 2011. We predict that more people will share their videos in the next few years.”

Communication tools

Findings from the survey show that Australians have embraced social networking as a communication tool, and are likely to keep using it to keep in touch with friends and continue to share information with each other.

“Our survey shows that Australians are employing a wide variety of new technologies to keep in touch with friends and family,” Mr Ewing said.

The World Internet Project is a 32-country partnership that aims to explore how the Internet influences social, political, cultural, and economic behaviour and ideas, and CCI is the Australian partner of the World Internet Project.

Full details of the 2012 WIP report can be found here.

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