The world’s social media habits uncovered in new UCL study

Why do we post selfies in England and footies in Chile? Why is social media considered a distraction to education in rural China, yet a valuable learning aid in Brazil? And how quintessentially English are we when it comes to our social media activity? . These are just some of the big themes explored in 'Why We Post' - a global social media research project carried out by a team of UCL anthropologists, launching today. The landmark project saw nine UCL anthropologists each spend 15 months living in eight countries* in communities as varied as an English village, a factory town in North China, and a community on the Turkish-Syrian border. Each team member conducted in-depth analysis into how the local populations behave and interact across social media channels and how these platforms are impacting on the way we live our lives, with the findings available via a dedicated website, an e-learning course and 11 Open Access books. Some of the study's key conclusions include: Social media is seen as enhancing education by low-income families , and hindering education by high-income families Contrary to popular belief, social media is not making us more individualistic or narcissistic - it is in fact reinforcing our sense of family and community Selfies look different around the world : people take 'footies' in Chile, selfies, 'groupies' and 'uglies' in the UK, and more traditional selfies in  Italy and Brazil.