The following sources have downloadable datasets related to the use of social media and technology.
<odesi> --Locate Canadian survey data on variety of topics including social networking, internet use, media consumption, etc.
Pew Research Centre -US based non-profit centre that collects and publishes datasets on social views and trends in society.
Roper iPoll Search --Searchable database of US Opinion Polls published by American media sources on wide variety of topics.
SimplyAnalytics --Online mapping and data extraction resource of USA and Canadian populations. Includes a "Digital Lifestyle" dataset focusing on social media preferences and behaviours. (UofT users need to create account with "utoronto" email address)
eMarketer Pro --a market research resource for digital marketing, social media, advertising, and e-commerce. It includes reports, benchmarks, articles, demographics and country information and will be of interest to business, entrepreneurship and media students.
Internet World Stats -Counts of Internet users globally
UTM Library Data & Statistics -Other Data Resources available at the UofT
Google Trends --Look up topics and frequent searchs by users by country and by date.
Twitter Advanced Search --Search for tweets by words, people, places, and dates
Ritetag --search by social media hashtag
Social Computing Data Repository (Free social media data downloads from Arizona State University)
Social Media Research Toolkit ---directory of social media data wrangling tools available for free or payment, complied by Ryerson University.