The unevenly absorbed and induced intra-regional Facebook adoption in Western Ukraine

Anotace: This paper aims to reveal and explain the spatial pattern of Facebook adoption in Western Ukraine. It discusses how to trace the fragmented nature of social networking services’ (SNS) penetration at the intra-regional level using Facebook data analysis. This study has confirmed the expectation that in Western Ukraine Facebook adoption is predominantly an urban phenomenon, but with some peculiarities depending on the local context. The largest cities and regional centers attract the highest number of users, while peripheral and the economically least developed places have the lowest Facebook penetration rate. However, there are some areas with a higher number of Facebook adopters caused by a specific rural settlement system and the location in the Carpathians with no large cities ‘pulling’ the audience. The spatial pattern of Facebook adoption in Western Ukraine is an intricate and intertwined mosaic of ‘SNS hubs’ and peripheries, suggesting a ‘digital differentiation’ rather than a ‘digital divide’.