Social Media User Characteristics of US Counties

Abstract

Human-deer interactions are increasing due to human urbanization into natural habitats, which has raised concerns about the transmission of zoonotic diseases. Social media videos can be used as a data source to see how these interactions play out in geographical regions within the United States. Since social media usage can be biased across platforms, it's important to understand the demographic determinants of platform usage. Therefore, this study investigates the demographic characteristics associated with social media usage to assess how user bases vary across platforms. We collected demographic variables and the estimated number of adults that have used TikTok, Instagram, and Facebook for each US county from Esri Business Analyst, removed highly correlated variables such as pet ownership, standardized the dataset, and conducted Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) regression analyses. The OLS models show that education and income are negatively associated with Facebook and TikTok usage, and that TikTok users are significantly younger. Instagram usage, in contrast, is positively associated with higher education, higher income, urban populations, and Democratic affiliation, contrasting Facebook users. The variable "male" is negatively associated with all three platforms, indicating higher female usage. TikTok usage, followed by Instagram, increases most in areas with Hispanic populations, while Facebook usage increases most in areas with larger Black/African American populations. Instagram usage, however, decreases in those areas. The models explain 71% (Instagram), 75% (Facebook), and 91% (TikTok) of the variation in platform usage. Identifying the demographic characteristics of social media platforms mitigate bias common in social media analysis of wildlife-human interactions.