Survey: Social Media Increasingly Popular in Lebanon
Social media like Facebook and Twitter have become important elements in political and social discourse in Lebanon with 34 percent of Lebanese saying they use social networking sites to share their views, a survey showed Thursday.
Among the social network participants in Lebanon, 68 percent said they shared views on politics, 81 percent on community issues and 8 percent on religion, a 21-nation survey made by the Pew Research Center found.
Similarly high levels were found in Tunisia, Egypt and Jordan.
Although 34 percent of Lebanese said they use the sites, 15 percent gave a negative response while 51 percent of the respondents said they had no internet.
"Expressing opinions about politics, community issues and religion is particularly common in the Arab world," said the Center's Global Attitudes Project survey.
The survey noted that social networking "has spread around the world with remarkable speed" in both advanced and developing countries.
It found that younger people were leading the way in the use of social networks, and that smartphones were being used widely to connect.
For example, in Lebanon 66 percent of respondents were 18-29 year olds, while 28 percent were 30-49 year olds.
The survey also found that a majority of Lebanese own a cell phone but only 24 percent use the internet regularly. Ninety percent said they frequently send text messages.
The practice of accessing social network sites on smartphones is common in Lebanon (69 percent), it said.
The report was based on a survey of more than 26,000 people in the 21 countries in March and April 2012.
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