Canadians VS Americans: Social Networking!

What Makes Canadians more interested in social networks then Americans?

“Maybe Canadians have more friends” was the title heralded by Alex Mindilin of International Herald Tribune. He was referencing how recent Comscore results revealed that Canadians were more likely to use a social network site then Americans were. Well categorically I will state that just recently there hasn’t been a lot of love going around for Analytics company Comscore, this perhaps leads to the information becoming a little vague and untrue.

According to InternetWorldstats.com 84.3% of Canadian internet users are on broadband, as opposed to the 72.5% of North American users on broadband. But how can there be such a large difference, is it to do with how cheap the plans are for users and what each service can offer users, well one thing is for sure according to a cbc.ca article it is impossible to find an unlimited download package in Canada.

Another thing I noted that largely relate to younger users of social networks in the teenage years is how more and more schools and education centres in Canada are starting to ban it from being used, this in my opinion draws them in to getting as much use of it as possible during their free time out of school, we all know how influential young people are becoming around social networks. However even Facebook, the most popular social network in Canada doesn’t seem to know where the key “tipping point” is for so many Canadians to use Facebook, but puts particular note to the Toronto, ON network has over 500,000 users signed up.

However, as much as it may appear according to my previous analysis that social networking is definitely having very positive growth in Canada, it may be noted that studies have been carried out that detail how around 4 in 10 Canadians don’t use social networks giving reasons such as “they would rather keep in touch in other ways” or “they weren’t safe”. These opinions appeared to be shared by a more senior community, however the article does go onto say that a third of over 50’s have visited a social networking site.

I can understand why they wouldn’t be compelled to join, especially as many of their younger grandchildren and even children would simply be “throwing sheep” or sending them “pokes”, an online activity more commonly conducted on the social network Facebook. However according to figures cited from an IHT Article there are roughly the same amount of internet users aged 55 or over as there are 18-34 year olds!

I do believe that as Canadians have taken a definite shine to social networking, it begs the question of how Americans spend their time online. I logically can’t believe that the usage is as low as some may claim in North America, however is the issue largely related to the social networking scene in North America not being as active because there are so many more services available to them then Canada have. I mean does North America for instance spend more time watching videos on Youtube or playing games, or is it down to the fact Canadians just love to be part of a Facebook group, page or social organization?