NCSI conducts opinion Poll on ‘Omani use of social media’

NCSI conducts public opinion Poll on ‘Omani use of social media applications’

Muscat: The National Center for Statistics and Information is currently implementing, in cooperation with the Ministry of Information, a public opinion poll regarding (Omanis’ use of social media applications), continues until December 21.

The implementation of this survey aims to prepare a national framework for dealing with social media and to achieve a number of objectives, including: knowing the rates of individuals’ use of social media, the interactions they make and the practices they follow, in addition to measuring the extent of users’ satisfaction with the various social media platforms, and their preferences.

The survey sample includes about 2,500 male and female citizens aged 18 years and above in all governorates, and is carried out via the telephone number of the Communications Center of the National Center for Statistics and Information during the official working hours.

The results of the survey on Omanis’ use of social media applications, which the Center implemented in March 2019, indicate that 94 percent of Omanis have accounts on social media, and the most popular of these means is the “WhatsApp” program, which is used by 93 percent of social media users. Followed by “YouTube” with 71 percent, then “Instagram” with 50 percent.

The results also indicated that the daily average of using social media was 6 hours a day, and that the most common time for using social media is the period from eight in the evening to twelve in the morning. 36 percent of Omanis trust, to one degree or another, social media as a source of news and information about important events, compared to 35 percent who do not trust it.

The results revealed that the Omani citizen has, on average, 3 accounts on different social networking sites. Communication with family and friends also came at the top of the reasons for using social media, followed by learning about the news.

It is noteworthy that all individual data is considered confidential data and will only be used for statistical purposes, which is a right guaranteed by the Statistics and Information Law issued by Royal Decree No. (55/2019).