Though the vast majority of German adults—93% in total—are online, only 51 percent use social media sites including Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok or X, the platform formerly known as Twitter. According to the findings of a new Pew Research study, the 42 percentage point gap between German adults who use the Internet and those who engage on social is bigger than any other country surveyed.
The study also found that while Germany is a relatively “old country” in that it has a higher median age than most nations, younger Germans are also using social media at comparatively low rates. Even as 100% of German adults under 40 are online, just 79% use social media.
The Pew Research study found that Germans don’t have a negative view of social media, but the interest doesn’t seem to be there.
“Germans are very sensitive around privacy, which makes them weary about using services that are monetizing privacy,” explained technology industry analyst Roger Entner of Recon Analytics.
The lower usage of social media versus those online is a trend seen across parts of Europe, however, just not as great as in Germany. The trust issue is a major factor.
“In some countries in Europe, social media brands have been viewed with skepticism and even disdain,” added social media analyst Greg Sterling, co-founder of Near Media. “They’ve been repeatedly fined for privacy violations and there’s been lots of negative coverage.”
Social Media Use Higher In The Developing World
The study also noted that in some countries, Internet access almost goes hand-in-hand with social media use. The Pew Research findings showed that 56% of Indians used the Internet, and 47% were on social media, while 78% of Indonesians were also online and 73% used social media.
In the African nations of Kenya and Nigeria, nearly all Internet users were on social media—with 66 percent of Kenyans having access to the Internet and 64% of them using at least one social platform, while 57% of Nigerians were online and 55% used social media.
The Pew Research study didn’t delve into why so many Kenyans and Nigerians are using social media, but several factors should be considered—including the fact that those nations had long lacked landline phone lines outside of the major urban centers, yet smartphone adoption has steadily increased.
Those in the developing world simply may not have a culture of “talking on the phone” and instead now communicate directly via social media. This trend began in the 1990s—actually predating social media—when mobile phone adoption began to increase. According to the United Nations, by 2010, there were more than 400 million mobile subscribers in Africa, greater than the number in North America.
Social media has continued to be one of the main drivers as mobile phone adoption has further increased.
“In some developing countries social media is synonymous with the Internet,” said Sterling. “Social media sites—e.g., Facebook, WhatsApp—may be their primary way to access Internet content. The cumulative impact of all this may be ambivalence or usage erosion. But there are undoubtedly cultural factors at play as well.”
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