After uploading my survey 32 people responded to them which i think was good as I feel like I have a varied and substantial data that I can evaluate and analyse.
Most people use 3-4 social media accounts on a daily basis and this was supported by the results on the amount of social media people have with Instagram, Youtube, WhatsApp, Facebook & Snapchat tieing on the results. I think think this is also suggesting that people use these many accounts for different purposes meaning that not one of these apps provide all the needs of the users.
53% of the people that answered said that they use social media for 4-6 hours a day which I think is quite average and not really surprising. As different people ay use some apps more often than others their interpretation of daily usage will be different. 58% said they have two or more accounts for one of the apps which I was expecting to be quite higher, but nevertheless I guess I was wrong. However, this made me realise that less people than I thought are using social media in a similar way that I do.
Although, when people said why they don't or do have two or more accounts, I found that there were very similar answers going on. For example, for reasons why they DO have two or more accounts someone said "On Instagram for example I have a 2nd account so I can post memes and more personal/comical content.", while another person said similarly, "For different target audiences e.g. a personal account for friends and some fun accounts like for pets, celebrities and food", meaning that people Do cater their account to their audiences and who follows them. Also, I think this also goes under convenience for easier and manageable content - clearly separating each personal and identity of a user. Similarly, people talked about separating personal and professional life saying that "Some for personal use, some for work/uni".
For people that said they DON'T have two or more accounts they reasoned how they simply don't need to "because 1 is enough" and it may be "too many accounts to keep track of". I think these are also really reasonable opinions and I understand why they said this and why more people than I thought said no. Especially, with trying to keep track of accounts, I think the downside of the having loads of accounts is it actually becomes an inconvenience itself.
I also asked if their language (e.g. formal or informal) change depending on the app/account they use, and 66% said YES. I think this was partly because many people said YES as well to having more than two accounts. Most people said it's because of their audience, while some because of the difference between their personal and professional life, "My design account has to look/sound professional"; while some I found because of the nature fo the social media app: "Voicing controversial opinions on twitter so more people "educated" people can see it, Tumblr - a fanblog so my followers who are my age can relate to what I say. All in all, it's a mixture of audience presence and the app context are what people consider when using which language they think is appropriate.
I think it is also partly because of the structure and main use of certain social media itself that people change the way they act and speak. Facebook is perceived to be where you have your family and everyone is connected therefore people may be less vocal or more polite there, whereas twitter on the other hand, is where people tend to rant more, voice their opinions and say what they want to say - especially as you can only write 140 characters, people will find ways in saying what they want to say e.g. starting threads and reposting (quote) reposting people's tweets. The same feature is named differently in different apps, such as a "Write a post" on Facebook is called "Write a Tweet" on Twitter" or Making a post on Instagram and Snapchat is simple the use of a universal camera icon. Doing this is what also makes people use the apps differently, as they have different associations to them that people will use them the way they are perceived and used by other people. Also, by using these accounts in a certain they will also feel like they have to use it in the same way in order to fit in and belong.
Thoughts & Reflection:
I think that through my survey I've gathered a fairly good amount of data which helped me in understanding how people use them in their own way. Such as that some of the answers to some of the questions were unexpected to me, which made me think of WHY they were like that. I also helped me understand people's way of thinking about how they use certain social media and in some ways supported my earlier research on multiple online identities. Furthermore, the idea of multiple identities is also something that is very strongly related to this survey and in some way has been proven by the answers given. Hopefully, the data will aid me further into the research of this topic and will help me on the design aspect of this brief.
