KUALA LUMPUR: FACEBOOK, WhatsApp and Instagram have emerged as the top three most used social media platforms among students in Malaysian public and private universities based on a recent survey carried out by Monash University Malaysia and University of Malaya (UM).
Touted as the first academic survey on social media and Snapchat use among students in Malaysia, the survey covered 422 respondents.
The multidisciplinary and cross-campus research revealed that Facebook came out tops as the most used social media platform at 38 per cent, WhatsApp at second with 35 per cent and Instagram third at 12 per cent.
Ninety per cent of participating students responded that they used social media to stay connected with friends ‘often’ or ‘most of the time’. 83 per cent use social media to get news often or most of the time.
WhatsApp was the most trusted, with regards to privacy, with 34 per cent of survey respondents stating that they believe WhatsApp best protects their privacy compared to other platforms. Most of the respondents said they use WhatsApp to organise activities with friends (74 per cent) and family (72 per cent).
Meanwhile, Snapchat – which automatically deletes images and messages after they have been viewed – is being used by 32 per cent of the students surveyed with 58 per cent of the students from private university and 5 per cent attending public university.
The average Snapchat user’s level of confidence, when sharing content on Snapchat will not be seen by any unintended person, is 53 per cent.
It was reported that 24 per cent of Snapchat users in the survey post about food, up to 5 times a day.
The survey was conducted from February till March this year and was led by Dr Julian Hopkins from the School of Arts and Social Sciences, Monash University Malaysia and Dr Ruth LT Ong from UM’s Faculty of Languages & Linguistics.
It was funded by Global Asia in the 21st Century (GA21), a Monash Malaysia research priority area.