Almost a third of adults in Ireland have a social media account under a different name according to a new survey.
Of them, 25% said they use it to view people's posts and accounts anonymously, while 19% said it enables them to hide their identity while engaging in controversial discussions online.
The 'Connected Lives’ survey was carried out by Pure Telecom and found that the average person has 4.4 social media accounts.
23% of adults have opened at least one social media account in the last 12 months, while 15% have deleted an account.
39% of adults have friends online who they have never met in-person.
The research also explored the most common social media blunders which were found to include liking old posts, sending an embarrassing message to the wrong person or group, and accidentally commenting on the wrong post or image.
"Many of us will probably find some comfort in our research, as it shows us that there are people just like us out there who have committed social media ‘no-nos’ in the past," said Paul Connell, CEO of Pure Telecom.
The nationally representative survey of 1,004 adults in Ireland was conducted by Censuswide on behalf of Pure Telecom.
