The role of experts in social media — Are the tertiary educated engaged?

With new social media technologies arising daily, this paper reports on a pilot user survey that studies how tertiary educated users are engaging with social media. The results indicate sporadic use of social media by the tertiary educated users studied; they are generally aware of the key social media sites and facilities, but are not actively utilizing these services. The reasons for, and the implications of a lack of tertiary educated users in the egalitarian and participatory environments intrinsic to social media are discussed. Further, the paper suggests potential technological barriers that might be at the root of such a lack of engagement amongst tertiary educated users.