2023-07-07 03:05:00
Within the framework of the recent Argentine Cultural Industries Market (MICA), the partial results of the National Survey of Cultural Consumption (ENCC) were presented, with data collected between the end of 2022 and the beginning of 2023.
And even though it was an expected figure, the growth in the use of social networks has an impact: they are used by 95 percent of the population. They cross social classes, genders and ages.
In its third edition since 2013 and with a methodological design that makes it representative at the national level, this instrument is “the only official survey on the habits, consumption and cultural preferences of the Argentine population” and allows a reading of the evolution of those behaviors over the past ten years.
The survey, developed around six basic questions (what do we look at?; what do we listen to?; what do we read?; what digital practices do we carry out?; where are we going?; what do we participate in?) provides specific data to analyze television consumption, audiovisual content on platforms and web pages; music, radio and podcast; news, magazines and books; social networks and video games; cinema, theater, live music and museums.
”This third edition provides information on various sectors of the cultural industries, the transformations of their modalities of production and monetization from the point of view of demand; digital practices, mass consumption, the use of platforms, access and participation in the field of tangible and intangible heritage, and practices linked to artistic training and community culture”, reads the introduction to the material prepared by the System of Cultural Information of Argentina (Sinca) and the Department of Planning and Management Monitoring of the Ministry of Culture.
If one thinks in terms of technological evolution and connectivity, the universe of social networks is particularly interesting when considering a diachronic analysis that covers the last decade.
Social networks. (Freepik)
Networks, the most massive medium
Among the first data that became known from the ENCC, one of the most resonant is linked to the fact that almost the entire population (95%) uses social networks. If this data is compared with the figures for 2013, when that percentage was 57%, the variation was 38% in nine years. In addition, between 2017 and 2022 the proportion of new users was 25%.
For Julia Houllé, sociologist who led the survey and director of Planning and Management Monitoring, the use of this type of platform “grew exponentially” and the networks became “the most massive medium”, with examples that exceed 70% of use among interviewees.
Among the most used, the presence of WhatsApp is practically universal (92% of those surveyed use it), while the second is neither Instagram (58%) nor Facebook (72%), but YouTube (82%). TikTok, with 34%, has already surpassed Twitter (16%) and newer ones such as Telegram (14%) and Twitch (9%).
In addition, this edition includes the consultation for viewing live broadcasts, a practice carried out by 44% of the population during the last year. In parallel, 81% claim to have seen videos on social networks “frequently” or “occasionally” in the same period.
“Social networks are the star topic of the survey. We live on the internet, but we also live on social networks, ”she pointed out at her turn Brenda Focás in the presentation made within the framework of the Mica. Conicet researcher and PhD in Social Sciences, her area of work is focused on studies of reception and audiences. In addition, she was a constituent part of the elaboration of the survey as a member of the Interdisciplinary School of Higher Social Studies (Idaes) of the National University of San Martín (Unsam), an institution that she collaborated in the design and monitoring of this instrument.
“The high percentages of people who use social networks are striking. It is a transversal data in terms of sociological variables: it crosses genders, ages, social classes”, Focás completes when consulted by La Voz. “It was something that we had been seeing in qualitative work and this puts the quantitative data into it,” she contextualizes.
For her, something that is evident if the evolution of the results obtained between 2013 and 2022 is seen is that the global crisis caused by Covid-19 worked as a kind of trigger for this increase in the number of users. Supported by technological progress in terms of connectivity, social networks became a digital refuge.
“The pandemic in some way accelerated this process of appropriation of new technologies, which is not exclusive to young people or digital natives, but also sees a very strong use in the adult and older population,” he explains. And as a concrete example, he uses another disaggregated data that appears in the survey: 72% of those over 75 use WhatsApp.
However, there are also nuances. For example, Houllé points out how the older portion of the respondents “out there does have WhatsApp but uses the rest of the networks much less.” In the case of YouTube or digital platforms, for example, “you have to have not only the internet and good connectivity, but also a series of skills that make it possible for you to access that.”
New uses (and the danger of misinformation)
On the other hand, from the survey itself it is highlighted that the activities most carried out on networks are “looking at publications, sharing content (reposting) and uploading own productions”. According to Houllé, “7 out of 10 look at friends’ posts, while there are 40% who upload posts and are generating content, and almost 50% who share or repost content from others.”
“There also appears something from social networks that enable certain more active or replicating roles, although not necessarily critical. It is not only the content that they consume there, but also that they replicate it”, explains the sociologist. “Social networks speak of belonging to a group, of sharing with other users,” she then specified, while she pointed out that thanks to these new dynamics “contents that are replicated in a much more dizzying way are beginning to circulate.”
Another of the characteristics linked to the expansion of the universe of networks in our daily lives has to do with the decentralization of traditional referents in terms of generating content or messages of high importance.
“To access cultural and media consumption we no longer need the medium or the portal, which is a selection of information. On social networks one can directly follow actors, actresses, cultural producers, soccer players. There is a synergy there, an interaction between users and producers that is very interesting”, Focás considers.
How information is consumed on networks
In this sense, Houllé assures that the survey as a data-generating instrument “serves to put on the table some issues that must be studied in depth.” A concrete example of this appears when analyzing the ways of consuming information in an increasingly complex media ecosystem: “More than 50% of the population is informed or reads news through social networks, and those who do so more frequently they are young people between 18 and 29 years old”.
“I believe that social networks come to add a means of communication that is relevant both in the production and in the circulation and content of the information”, Focás contributes.
Another piece of data that Houllé adds is evidenced: 20% of those surveyed make comments on social networks regarding what they watch on television. “Networks are that active place where senses are replicated,” he defines in this regard.
“What is seen, in the case of information, is that in the face of an antagonistic and polarizing scenario in the media, people follow certain influencers or opinion leaders that they consider to be apolitical. It is a response to the saturation of the crack. It is something to pay attention to, in principle”, Focás proposes in turn.
“Before, it was believed that the newspaper ‘reflected’ reality; now there are many alerts regarding what is consumed but paradoxically the practices end up giving an account of the social networks as filter bubbles. We all end up following people who more or less think like us, or reproducing certain beliefs, ”she completes.
There, of course, there are also some dark spots that are worth illuminating. Phenomena such as addiction to network consumption and cell phone use intersect with practices such as bullying or cyber harassment, which in turn are becoming more and more “viral”.
“They are practices that spread. They are not new, but it is true that videos go viral or there are specific situations where some type of regulation or call for attention is necessary”, the researcher notes.
Within this framework, and taking into account the possible consequences of this increasingly broad scenario in terms of access to social networks, Focás underlines the need to think regarding a “generalized media and digital literacy”, not only for the youngest.
Beyond the relative uses of the different age groups, for her there is still a long way to go if the goal is to develop a digital ecosystem with clear rules and limits.
And although he distances himself from the apocalyptic gazes of documentaries such as The Dilemma of Social Networks or The Dark Line, he warns: “Networks also play a very strong role in disinformation.”
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