SocietÀ
THE RISE OF SOCIAL MEDIA IN ITALY
Italy has a reputation for digital indifference, which can be seen throughout history from its apparent reluctance to come to speed with technology. Even in the mid-2000s more than half of Italian homes were still without a computer. Italy’s flourishing presence on social media in the last few years has therefore come as a slight shock.
Nowadays 22.3 million Italians use Facebook, a percentage very similar to the 23.4 million users in France even if it is still far off from the 35.1 million users in Britain. Interestingly, Instagram is the second most used social media platform in Italy after Facebook, whereas in the UK both Twitter and LinkedIn are more popular than Instagram.
The differences in how each nationality use social media is equally interesting. For example, Italians seem to have a far more sociable and lively presence on Facebook than many British users who in contrast seem more reserved. Their posts are generally more personal and emotional and far less ironic than most British users. Perhaps this is because Facebook took off much earlier in the UK than in Italy so is no longer a novelty; today many young people in the UK don’t even have Facebook and Snapchat and Instagram have taken over as the most popular forms of social media amongst Brits under the age of 18. Or perhaps these differences can be linked to culture; Brits are renowned for being generally more private and reserved and this could extend to their online presence too.
Throughout Europe there has been a growing trend of social media stars and Italy is no exception…
Italians seem to have a far more sociable and lively presence on Facebook
Eleonora Rimini