Social media in Finland

In Finland, Information technology and the participation is more than any other country. In the latest Global Information technology report 2015, Finland ranked 2nd in overall IT usage.

The overall position of IT status of Finland is same last three year while the individual indicators changed in every year. The best side of the report is that Finland has the strong infrastructure for IT development. (WEF reports 2015, 156.)

Due to high penetration of information technology and new communication tools it is assumed that the user of ICT and social media has a big influence in the everyday life in Finland. There are different opinion about the use of IT and social media in Finland. In her article titled ‘Non users of ICT and social media-marginal voices’ Talsi (2014,75) argued that in a society where using information technology is a norm and the whole society is more or less mediated by information technologies, not using them is interpreted as abnormal activity. Which says clearly the rise of marginalization for not using the information technology and also social

media. Talsi (77) also argued that the non-use of social media can also exclude people from a social environment and social relationships.

Different study shows that service users are strongly engaged with social networks and different kind of social media. The state of social media in Finland (2013) quoting Statistics Finland mentioned that more than a half (exactly said 51 percent) of the 16 to 74-year-old Finns had been following at least some social network service in the past three months. The study shows that 61 percent of the same age group additionally uses a Smartphone. This constantly growing amount of people accessing internet through mobile and tablet devices is also changing the way how social media is used in our every-day lives. (The state of Social Media in Finland 2013). Recent observation shows that almost all the public service and also the private organizations have their social media channel to disseminate information. To stay connected and provide the information to the clients, prospective clients it’s going actively. Social media not only found useful for the marketing purposes of the company or products. But it is now also same to getting close to the clients or service users.

In the global IT report 2015, the rate of individual usage of internet is also quite high among the listed countries. Finland is 7th among the top individual user’s countries. The report (4) says that, ICTs act as a vector of social development and transformation by improving access to basic services, enhancing connectivity, and creating employment opportunities. In these ways ICTs affect how people live, communicate, interact, and engage among themselves and with their governments.

Dahlgren (2005) and Näh & Chung (2012) cited in Näsi (2015,111) argued that the newly emerging journalistic environment that we can all participate in enables news audiences to interact with both professional and amateur journalists. This adds new value to communication in the form of entertainment, peer support, expertise and social capital. When it comes about the strength and power of the readers and as a person, how anyone could influence the discussions in different level, by using the social media. When discussing about the photography Näsi (2015,122) mentioned this means that ordinary people not only have the opportunity to create, combine and send visual content to one another but can also deliver desired information online in a variety of social media forums. What is more, social media, personal websites and blogs offer a limitless audience as long as the marketing and the content is well planned and executed.

The essence of communication in our life is important in any means which Fuchs (2015, 242) says as an essential feature of human society. He argued that there can be no society without communication; human create and maintain social relationships by

communication and thereby continuously reproduce their social existence. Media, such as the internet, are a means of communication. They are tools that enable the production of communication and human sociality. Means of communication, like nature, education, love, care, knowledge, technology, affects, entertainment, language, transportation, housing, food, cities, cultural goods and traditions etc. In this context of tech friendly and well-structured information communication technology demands better use of those digital tools for the wellbeing of people. The citizen’s wellbeing and the professional services of social work are also necessary to adopt those means of IT, social network and communication tools, which are a regular practice in business, marketing and other fields. But, in Finland, the opportunity of social work professionals are ignored here, in relation with the social media platforms.

Digital media and communication tools are also much more important to people's lives as the other mainstream media in Finland. Näsi (2015,111) argued that in Finland, engaging with readers and involving them in making the publication currently seems to have become at least equally important to publishing exclusively amateur news photographs. Established newspapers are interested in building a social bond with their readerships and direct the media time the readers consume towards the newspaper. Naturally the link between the printed paper and the online version is stronger than ever. As newspapers shift towards digital news services, the simultaneously crave a strong position in people’s everyday lives.

Even the elderly people of Finland needs to be taken into account to formulate effective policy for information technology use and social media connectivity. As Nordlund et al (2014, 8) argued that the information technology could be introduced to the elderly through some entertaining or useful activity. People’s interest could be sparked by different things: some would like to keep in touch with their grandchildren living on the other side of the globe, others visit their childhood landscapes using interactive maps, some scan old photos from their family albums for the future generations to see, etc.’