People using Facebook don't realise they're on the internet

New research by the website Quartz goes some way to confirming a three-year-old study that showed people in south-east Asia were more likely to claim to be Facebook-users than internet-users.

That research from Helani Galpaya in Thailand, the Philippines, Indonesia and Burma, saw her then boss at the LIRNEasia thinktank remark: "It seemed that in their minds, the internet did not exist; only Facebook.”

Quartz tried to replicate the phenomenon of Facebook members in emerging market countries not associating the site with the internet by commissioning surveys in Nigeria and Indonesia.

The research suggested 11 per cent of Indonesians and nine per cent of Nigerians say they are active on Facebook, but don’t use the internet.

(independent.co.uk)