Singapore.
Our CCI roundtable on methodological challenges and cultural science was next in this pre-conference at ICA 2010, but we were presenting from my laptop so I couldn't blog it... Skipping to the first of the post-lunch sessions instead, we're starting Knut Arne Futsaeter, whose focus is on the growth of Facebook in Norway as a process of diffusion. Norway is a world leader in Internet access (at some 92% of the population), and Facebook is one of the most popular social media sites (with a market penetration of 50%).
Facebook has undergone rapid growth since its introduction to American college students a few years back; since being introduced to Norway, it has similarly attracted a quickly growing number of users. This has followed the standard adoption curve outlned by Gladwell (innovators, early adopters, early majority, late majority, laggers) - but in Norway, groups usually seen as innovators are still coming to the site, notably. Facebook is well beyond its tipping point in Norway, and it is becoming increasingly difficult to remain offline from it, given the significant network effects pulling in new users. This also crosses boundaries across different (offline) social networks - Facebook usage has become a social epidemic, Knut suggests, not unlike swine flu...
The format and features of Facebook have something to do with this, but also the individual usage forms that emerge, as well as the potential for public and semi-public interaction that they enable. Among younge rusers, common motives for using Facebook are having nothing else to do (75%), maintaining contact with friends (73%), entertainment (55%), information (37%), etc.; this ranking is similar but less pronounced amongst older users, too.
The site also performs an important bridging functionality - people use it to communicate broadly with a range of groups of friends, and some 40% have more than 200 friends on the site. 48% meet many of their friends less than once per year offline. This means that there are many different processes of and motivations for diffusion for Facebook in Norway.
The site has now become the third most important media form (after the two public service TV channels) in Norway - even more so for younger users; the growing use of mobile Facebook is also notable. So, it may now be more than simply a social networking site - it is a media hub, and information site, a communication tool, a mix of private and public spaces.
