How Canada Feels about Social Networks

• 83% of female Canadians aged 18-30 feel digital technology allows for easier social connections, compared to their male counterparts at 76%.
• Only 6% of NGen and 4% of Gen X report visiting recent media darling, Twitter, in the last month. The same as other, less talked about social networks including Hi5, DIGG and Tagged.
• There is a significant difference between how frequently Canadians visit social network sites vs. post content. YouTube experiences the greatest difference between views and posts – for example, while 83% of NGen visited YouTube only 6% posted content. While 59% of Boomers visited the site, only 4% posted content.

When sharing information online, here’s how Canadians felt:

• No surprise, NGen feel the safest about sharing any type of personal information online but are more comfortable sharing credit card (79%) rather than address and phone number (50%).
• The majority of NGen and Gen X feel safe about sharing and using credit card information; Boomers & Canadians 65+ are significantly less confident (only 46% of Boomers, 39% of 65+ feel safe).
• Only the majority of NGen are comfortable sharing demographic information (53%) – the majority of all other generations are neutral or not comfortable sharing information like their age, gender and marital status.
• Most Canadians would prefer NOT to share their addresses or phone numbers online. NGen is most comfortable (yet only 29% feel safe), while Boomers are least comfortable (only 22% feel safe).

You can download the full report on Online Communities and Information Sharing at the Delvinia Insight website.

Results are based on 11,559 regionally and demographically representative* AskingCanadians™ representative panelists surveyed, 50/50 gender split, broken down
as follows:

• 1,112 18-30 year olds (NGen)
• 3,432 31-44 year olds (Gen X)
• 6,222 45-65 year olds (Boomers)
• 793 65+