DSA Online | New Media Updates

Lately, there has been a counter-buzz about social media suggesting that we are seeing a decline in usage amongst Canadians, so we put our Raving Rabbids research hats on, played some video games, and (after putting our wii-motes down, & doing some real research) came up with some solid information. Essentially what we confirmed was that the face of social media is evolving, not necessarily declining. In January of 2010 almost all Canadian online teens (85%) had a Facebook account, so what we are seeing now is some stabilization and seasonal habit changes. ComScore shows that in January that youth (aged 2-17) logged 49 monthly Facebook visits per user, spending a monthly total of 8:15 hours chatting and updating their status. These numbers in June are lower at 39 monthly visits at 6.5 hours total, though during the same period for the same demographic total internet use has also declined from 80 visits a month to 63, so the Facebook decline mirrors overall internet use. This reduction may be a decay in interest in Facebook, although it also could be a seasonal trend which will change again once the blustery weather of fall and winter hits. I know I’ve been spending more time on the patio than I have playing Farmville lately. That brings me to the next point. Now that the teens have been on Facebook for a few years, the demographic that is seeing the most growth is the females aged 50+. They are finding old classmates and keeping informed of what their kids are up to. More and more studies are starting to pop up showing Moms as key brand influencers via social networks. I know many people who are taking a look at how they use Facebook, and some are deciding that they would prefer it to be used more as a social tool, to coordinate events etc rather than a way to interact with their best buds. Read more

This is a cool map.
You know – except for the part where we spend $6.50 per mbps.

This probably merits a much longer post, and I might do that later, but for now check out this graph:

UK sales of various media - click to visit source page

We’ve all heard that illegal downloading is killing the music industry, and starting to take a chunk out of television; this graph slaps that theory right in the face.  We often compare TV, Radio, Newspapers, and the web as competitors for media dollars, but maybe we should be taking a closer look at video games. While executives worry about losing dollars to downloads, video games sales are devouring consumers’ disposable income.