A new study by the Danish engineers’ association Ingeniørforeningen (IDA) shows that around 94% of Danes have a profile on at least one social network.
More than half (57%) of Danish adults actively use three social networks, according to a survey of 2,000 Danish consumers.
Facebook is the most popular social network among Danes: 85% of the population has an account on this network. Instagram, YouTube and Snapchat rank second, third and fourth, respectively.
The study showed that most Danes use Facebook not only to communicate, but also to find information about local associations, educational institutions and leisure groups.
Facebook is Denmark’s digital community centre, where all kinds of associations communicate with their members,” commented Jørn Guldberg, IT security expert at IDA, who warned that consumers and organisations should be vigilant when using social media.
“Your personal data can be collected and resold for all sorts of purposes,” he added. “You pay for using Facebook with your privacy, and that is very problematic. Therefore, neither associations nor government agencies should communicate on Facebook.”
Guldberg added that society has “fallen asleep in a web of algorithms created by tech giants” without paying enough attention to the harm this can cause, especially to children and young people.
At the same time, the study shows a noticeable decline in the popularity of platforms such as X and TikTok over the past two years: more than a third (35%) of users have left X in the last two years, and 27% have left TikTok.
Social media is least used in France (42%), Italy (46%) and Slovenia (49%), according to the European statistics agency Eurostat. On average, 56% of EU residents use social media.
According to the authors of the study, social media use includes activities such as creating a user profile and posting messages or other content.
