Class and Social Media

• In Event: Mapping Digital Divides in Communication Practices Across Major Life Realms

Abstract

Is social media use a function of socio-economic status? There are number of everyday assumptions about social media use. The press often present social media use as ubiquitous among young people. In fact, in the UK social media use is socially stratified – with lower socio-economic status groups using the medium less by amount and having higher levels of non-use. This paper explores the interaction between a number of key socio-economic and cultural variables in relation to UK citizens use of social media. The paper draws on the UK national Ofcom media literacy survey where data were collected on social media, across use all years since 2004. The general analyses include all social media sites and services but detailed analyses focus on Twitter and Facebook as these were the most used in the 2014-2016 period. The paper presents descriptive statistics on use by age, gender, social class, deprivation and education. Binary logistic regression models and discriminant function analyses indicate that social class acts as one of the main predictors of some social media use, especially Twitter, but not others such as FaceBook. With higher socio-economic status individuals being more likely to have Twitter profiles and where they use the system more. This picture is complicated by the fact that social media use by members of lower socioeconomic status groups represents a higher proportion of their overall internet use – even though both are lower in absolute volume compared to higher status groups. The paper argues that in the context of digital media use new forms of digital cultural inequality and difference are forming between class groups.

Author

• Simeon John Yates, U of Liverpool