Survey Report

This report was developed in the context of Communities Communication (COMM.COMM) an Erasmus+ KA2 strategic partnership project focusing on the relevance of communication and social integration in local communities.

The survey was answered in total by 689 persons: 154 from Portugal, 117 from Spain, 76 from Estonia, 161 from Romania and 181 from Greece. The main objective was to understand what are the main barriers to communication between generations and, more importantly, what are the main channels of communication used by users of different ages. The questions intended to shed light on the process of communication, the different channels, approaches and the time each person dedicated to digital communication.

We were expecting standard findings on the amount of time spent by each person on communicating digitally when compared to the age. However there’s a rising number of users of digital means of communication over 55 years old. On a different note it is important to stress the shift of paradigm when using social network platforms and how these are perceived by different age groups. A tendency for different generations to tend to specific platforms (younger users tend to refuse facebook in favour of youtube and instagram) is evident.

The survey was designed with two distinct parts for age groups (under 18 and over 18) to allow a targeted use of data in these particular sections.

With a structure which is intended to be short and allow the responders to answer all questions without being tempted to skip over these, the survey allowed us to obtain structured and reliable data.

It was implemented online (through google form) and it was printed and implemented directly to people when necessary (due to lack of digital skills).

The survey brought up a number of noteworthy conclusions among which:

1. Facebook is becoming more popular among people over 18 than younger individuals. Social networks with more images/video seem to become more popular among newer generations.
2. The main reason for the use of social networks is to communicate with friends.
3. Surprisingly younger individuals seem to give less relevance to online chatting as a mean of communication than the older generation, i.e. currently over 18.
4. on the other hand, calling as a mean to convey a message seems to be taken as a relevant and serious option by the vast majority of the respondents.
5. Cultural activities and sports seem to be unanimously considered as an effective method to strengthen bonds within the communities at a local level.
6. The 18-30 age group gives more relevance to online communication than the -18 year old group.
7. Surprisingly in Romania, around 50% of the respondents did not consider the existence of a digital or communication gap within their communities.
8. Older individuals do not know what an emoticon is and how to use it.

There was no private personal data collected for the survey which was anonymous.
Each partner did their own actions to promote the survey and applied it to people with less digital skills.

The data and the findings resulting from this survey played a key role in understanding the actions necessary in local communities around europe to create bridges between people of different ages.