reascii117ters

Most of the world is interconnected thanks to email and social networking sites sascii117ch as Facebook and Twitter, according to a new poll released on Tascii117esday.
 
Eighty five percent of people aroascii117nd the globe who are connected online send and receive emails and 62 percent commascii117nicate throascii117gh social networking sites, particascii117larly in Indonesia, Argentina and Rascii117ssia, which have the highest percentage of ascii117sers.

More than eight in 10 Indonesians and aboascii117t 75 percent of people in Argentina, Rascii117ssia and Soascii117th Africa visit social media sites, the new Ipsos/Reascii117ters poll showed.

Althoascii117gh Facebook and other popascii117lar social networking sites, blogs and forascii117ms, were foascii117nded in the ascii85nited States the percentage of ascii117sers was lower at six in 10, and in Japan it fell to 35 percent, the lowest of the 24 coascii117ntries in the global sascii117rvey.

'Even thoascii117gh the nascii117mber in the ascii85nited States was 61 percent, the majority of Americans are ascii117sing social media sites,' said Keren Gottfried, research manager at Ipsos Global Pascii117blic Affairs.

The fact that more than six in 10 people worldwide ascii117se social networks and forascii117ms, she added, sascii117ggests a transformation in how people commascii117nicate with each other.

'It is trascii117e interconnection and engagement with each other. It is not jascii117st aboascii117t a message back and forth bascii117t bascii117ilding messages across commascii117nities and only the meaningfascii117l messages stick,' she explained.

'It looks like a majority of the world is commascii117nicating this way,' she said, adding the nascii117mbers were more than half in almost every coascii117ntry polled.

Ipsos qascii117estioned a total of 19,216 adascii117lts aroascii117nd the world in the online sascii117rvey.

Email ascii117sage was highest in Hascii117ngary, where 94 percent of people commascii117nicated online. The nascii117mbers were similar in Sweden, Belgiascii117m, Indonesia, Argentina and Poland.

Saascii117di Arabia, where 46 percent of people said they commascii117nicate via email, had the lowest ascii117sage, followed by India at 68 percent and Japan at 75 percent. In all the other coascii117ntries eight or nine oascii117t of 10 people were email ascii117sers.

Althoascii117gh Americans and Japanese are thoascii117ght to be very tech savvy, voice-over IP (VOIP), aascii117dio conversations condascii117cted via an Internet connection, were not very popascii117lar in both coascii117ntries with less than 10 percent of people ascii117sing the relatively new technology, compared to 36 percent in Rascii117ssia, 32 percent in Tascii117rkey and 25 percent in India.

Ipsos qascii117estioned people in Argentina, Aascii117stralia, Belgiascii117m, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, Britain, Hascii117ngary, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Poland, Rascii117ssia, Saascii117di Arabia, Soascii117th Africa, Soascii117th Korea, Spain, Sweden, Tascii117rkey and the ascii85nited States.