By Ken Y-N ( December 6, 2005 at 23:16)
· Filed under Internet, Lifestyle, Polls
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Forgive the horrendously punny headline with a rather naff neologism, but MyVoice recently conducted a survey of their MyVoice internet community here in Japan to find out their views regarding Social Networking Services (SNS). 15,537 people, 60% female, completed the web-based opinion poll, with almost four in ten of the respondents being in their thirties.
Speaking personally, I’ve never really been into online communities, and even when I seriously played MMRPGs, I kept friendships at purely functional levels in-game, and although I was more outgoing on message boards, I never moved to private messaging or email, let alone anything more serious. I get the impression that mixi and others do appeal to the demographic that are looking for “anything more serious”, though! It’s interesting that people would much, much prefer to invite real-life friends, though.
Q1: Do you know the term Social Networking Service?
| I use or am registered with one |
8.4% |
| I don’t use and am not registered with one, but I know what they are |
7.8% |
| I’ve just heard the term |
31.8% |
| I don’t know the term |
52.1% |
Q2: For those using SNSs, select all the SNSs you are using. (Sample size=1,305, multiple answer)
Q3: What are the attractive features of an SNS? (Sample size not specified, perhaps users only, so 1,305, multiple answer)
| Community of friends with shared tastes |
40.1% |
| Can limit public dissemination of information |
21.9% |
| Acquaintances without invitations cannot join |
19.9% |
| Can check history of who has visited my page |
18.9% |
| Can find friends I’d lost touch with |
18.3% |
| Can widen my social structure to friends-of-friends |
16.6% |
| Can keep friends up to date through my diary, etc |
15.5% |
| More people registered with their real names than the average site |
14.6% |
| Can get more information than just mail from friends |
11.6% |
| Can find out about favourite books and films, etc |
10.9% |
| Can publicly display photos and illustrations |
8.0% |
| Can see other people’s web of friendships |
7.8% |
| Can show my received invitiations to other people |
3.7% |
| Can inform friends about birthdays, etc |
3.3% |
| No answer |
13.4% |
Note that the second and third answers are both about restricting access, not widening it, as one might think would be the main attractions of an SNS. However, this might tie in with what I heard about Japanese P2P software, especially the infamous Winny – people didn’t freely share; you had to ask nicely, on the whole, which seemed to defeat the whole purpose of P2P
Q4: If you received an invitation email for an SNS from a close friend, would you register with that site? (Sample size not indicated, perhaps all 15,537)
| Yes |
20.4% |
| No |
31.0% |
| Don’t know |
47.0% |
| No answer |
1.6% |
Q5: If you used an SNS, what sort of people might you like to invite to join? (Sample size=not indicated, perhaps all 15,537, multiple answer)
| Physically close friends or family |
35.7% |
| Physically distant friends or family |
23.3% |
| Friends I haven’t been in touch with recently |
12.8% |
| Non-net-related acquaintances, colleagues and old school friends |
12.6% |
| Net-based friends and acquaintances whom I know by real name |
9.9% |
| Lover(s) |
7.6% |
| Net-based friends and acquaintances whom I don’t know by real name |
5.4% |
| Other |
0.7% |
| No one I want to invite |
13.1% |
| Don’t know |
30.1% |
| No answer |
1.4% |
Read more on: myvoice,
sns
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