Norway: One in three with social media profiles don’t know how to use them

Only half of Norwegian men feel confident they know how to use social networking tools such as Facebook and Twitter. But digital literacy is on the rise in the Norwegian population.

Those are some of the conclusions drawn in a survey recently presented by the Norwegian National Institute for Consumer Research, where digital competences in Norwey have been studied. The survey (in Norwegian) can be downloaded from the institute’s website, and national broadcaster NRK has summarized the findings. (Both in Norwegian.)

Below are some of the other findings in the survey.

Banking, shopping lead the way:

Digital literacy for personal finances and shopping are at an all time high:

• 95% of web users can navigate the Internet
• 94% can use online banking services
• 77% say they are competent at shopping online
• 72% can use prize comparison services online

But when it comes to social media, Norwegian Internet users do not think as highly of themselves. Only 58% of web users say they are “good” or “very good” at using Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn or similar tools. This is still a massive improvement from the same survey results from 2009, when only 33% felt they were skilled users of social media services.

Women rule social media in Norway:

Men feel more comfortable using most digital services – except for social media. When users are asked to rate their own social media skills, the numbers saying they are “good” or “very good” are:

• 66% of women
• 51% of men

Older users go on Facebook, too:

Digital literacy decreases with age. But even in the older age groups, social media literacy is growing:

• 89% literacy under 30 years old
• 69% literacy 30-44 years old
• 46% literacy 45-59 years old
• 30% literacy 60 years or older

So, in fact, three out of ten Norwegians over the age of 60 are quite comfortable using social media services.