Although Facebook and its negative impacts have been under a great deal of discussion in Iceland of late, just under 50% of Icelanders still feel positively about the social media platform. Vísir reports that a new survey conducted by EMC Rannsóknir shows that Icelandic women, upperclass Icelanders, and Icelanders who live in the countryside tend to be the most positive about Facebook. Just over 30% of Icelanders are neutral about Facebook; 20% are negative about it.
The survey was conducted from August 12-24 and examined public opinion about 65 different companies in Iceland, including Facebook. A total of 1,170 people took part.
Icelanders have long been avid internet and social media users. In 2018, the country ranked 6th in WeAreSocial.com’s global Internet Penetration Rankings, with 98% penetration.
[media-credit name=”We Are Social” align=”alignnone” width=”860″]
The same organization’s “Digital in 2018 in Northern Europe – West” report showed that last year, of the country’s 336,400 inhabitants, 270,000 (80%) were active social media users and active monthly users of Facebook. 240,000 Icelanders (71%) were active mobile social users. Facebook was Iceland’s third most visited website, just after Google and Youtube. (See the full Iceland Digital in 2018 profile here.)
[media-credit name=”We Are Social” align=”alignnone” width=”860″]
EMC Rannsóknir CEO and owner Gísli Steinar Ingólfsson said that Icelanders’ overall positivity toward Facebook was noteworthy.“In spite of the intense and negative discussion about social media and its profound impact, Facebook came out really well in comparison to many companies in Iceland. This suggests that many people put more emphasis on the positive impacts of social media than its negative ones. It will be interesting to follow developments with this in the future and see whether attitudes change with increased discussion.”
