The Internet Age Gap

The Des Moines Register has a new Iowa poll about where Iowans get their election news and information. It's an interesting poll, and it goes back to the subject of the growing role of the internet. While some people may question any results from the Iowa Poll, after pretty much calling the results of the 2006 midterms, I’m not quite as willing to throw out the results.

Towards the end of the article, here is what the poll found about internet use:

When it comes to using the Internet, the Iowa Poll shows that four-fifths of likely caucus participants in the 18-to-34 age bracket have searched the Internet for candidates' stands on issues or that is something they are likely to do.

The level of use drops off to about two-fifths of likely caucus goers who are 55 or older.

The age gap is about the same for visiting candidate Web sites.

Significant age differences also show up in the Iowa Poll in reading online forums or blogs written by experts, with use in the 34-or-younger group running 20 percentage points higher than in the 55-or-older age group.

This adds to the argument that we as a party need to keep up on the use of the Internet as a method of voter contact. Twice as many people in the 18-34 group use the internet for candidate research than the over 55 group. (I’m including “visiting candidate websites” into the candidate research column as that is the most likely reason why people visit them in the first place.) The 18-34 and the 35-54 group have much closer results. It is only a 10% difference in using the internet for candidate research, and only a 1% difference on reading blogs and forums by experts. When they asked about newspaper use, the poll didn’t differentiate between print and online articles, but I’m sure we’d see similar results.

The article also found that for both parties, half of those planning on attending the caucuses are over 55, and only 10% will be 18-34 year olds. Combining the survey into 2 groups, under 55 and over 55, half of caucus attendees will make much use of the internet in deciding who to support. This will only increase for future caucuses and elections. The Internet will be to our and future generations to what the TV ad and direct mailing was to those in the late 20^th century, and the political rallies, marches, and speeches of several hours in length to those is the 19^th century.

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