Social networks have become a fundamental aspect for the lives of 100 million people in Mexico, according to figures from the, prepared by Hootsuite and We Are Social, on average, this number of users spend three and a half hours connected.
In addition, another relevant point of this report is that the average number of platforms used by each Mexican is 10.2 social networks and of the total users who use these virtual spaces, 98.9% access through their mobile devices.
Regarding the preferences of Mexicans, YouTube ranks first, with 96%. Then there is a clear dominance of Facebook platforms, since in second place is said social network, with 95% of visits. It is followed by WhatsApp, with 91%, Messenger, which was used by 79% of Mexicans, and Instagram appears in fifth place, with 77%.
The next five most used apps were Twitter, with 61%, Pinterest, with 48%, Tik Tok, with 47%, LinkedIn, with 35%, and Snapchat, with 34%.
Likewise, Facebook had a greater preponderance in the time that people spent on its different platforms; although it had competition from the Chinese social network for short videos: Tik Tok. Specifically, people used Facebook 29.6 hours per month, WhatsApp 10.5 hours, Tik Tok 17.2 hours, Instagram 6.7 hours, and Twitter 5.8 hours.
It is worth mentioning that the COVID-19 pandemic also had an impact on the use of social networks in Mexico, since in January 2021 this increased 12%, that is, 11 million new users, according to data from the BNN Digital agency.
In this sense, social networks contributed to reducing the uncertainty caused by the crisis derived from the health emergency and even generated a renewed future for these services, since they allowed the connection between people during a complicated period through other forms of use.
An example of the development of social networks was its advance towards audio formats through platforms such as Clubhouse and Spaces – the latter from Twitter – where “people were able to vent their thoughts and emotions” on the pandemic and social issues ,, director of the consulting firm Fabernovel.
One of the reasons why the use of social networks increased during this period, he explained, is that seeing the lives of other people was part of the effort that each one made from their confinements, to make sense of the world around them.
“All the stories that we experience directly or those stories that we read, see, hear and interact with are having some kind of impact on shaping our shared understanding of society,” commented the specialist.
On the other hand, Hootsuite also highlighted in its study that spending more than 20 hours a week browsing social networks has modified everyday elements, such as language, which is responsible for describing the world and therefore required new words to name digital reality.
In this way, terms such as tiktoke, google, tweet, like and meme, among other words, became common concepts and many have even been included in the Royal Academy of the Spanish Language, such as trolling and avatar, which were incorporated into 2020.
“This reflects that the language has adapted to technological evolution and that it is a living element in constant transformation,” Hootsuite pointed out in his report, where he also highlighted that the changes will continue to occur, since the reach of the networks is global and every day the number of users increases by 1.4 million.
