And it’s adults, not kids, who are leading the ‘users’.
Three out of four of us are using Facebook daily, according to the latest ‘Digital in 2017’ report. That’s compared to a worldwide average of just 55 per cent.
Australia now have 16 million active users – about two-thirds of the population – an increase of 14 per cent in the last 12 months.
The report, which looked at data from 238 countries, found 75 per cent of Australians also check Facebook daily, compared to just 55 per cent globally.
Not just teenagers on Snapchat
But who’s actually using it? While Generation Y (18 to 34 years) may be regarded as the ‘social media’ generation, turns out it is us parents who are racking up the screen time.
A recent Nielsen report revealed Generation X – people aged 35 to 49 – spent an average of six hours and 58 minutes a week on social media, compared with six hours and 19 minutes for Generation Y.
The over-50’s notched up four hours and nine minutes.
But is this really such a surprise? We are the ‘sandwich generation’, caring for ageing parents as well as young children and teens – and we need to keep in touch with them both.
What about WhatsApp?
Group messaging service WhatsApp (owned by Facebook) now has 3.1 million users in Australia, a 30 per cent increase since 2015.
Globally, the app has over 1.2 billion monthly active users.
The Chinese free messaging and calling app WeChat has also launched in Australia. It’s China’s third most popular social media site with 846 million active users. Clearly it can see a market here too.
One thing’s for sure – Mark Zuckerberg will be sending us a big thumbs up.
