| Kippreport.com

Generation Y on the US elections

November 4, 2012 3:57 by M. Aldalou

As the date of the presidential election nears, a topic that’s almost as important as who will be elected; is what influences the decisions and opinions of the youth. Focusing on the millennial population, otherwise known as Generation Y, Viacom International Media Networks found several key findings in their latest research.

The research was primarily conducted among the European youth but it can also give you an idea of the global thought pattern and most commonly used mediums. Not only did 86 percent of European respondents have an active interest in global issues, but almost half of them (48 percent) considered the US election as important as their own country’s election.

Obama, across all countries and political fractures, is found to be the most desirable candidate with the vast majority saying they would vote for him. In fact, Kipp discovered that results of a poll by the Council on American-Islamic relations reveal that 68 percent of US Muslims said they would re-elect President Barack Obama as the Democratic party has ‘been friendly to them’.

According to political analysts and debate enthusiasts, Obama did a solid job on the debates and anyone who watched the debates would agree. On the other hand, political scientists have repeatedly stressed that presidential debates don’t really have a large impact on the outcome or voters. What it comes down to is that, regardless of who gets elected, the millennial population around the world are showing little faith in government leadership with 23% thinking it will get better and 41% thinking it will only get worse.

Now we get to the last excerpt of the research, which just so happens to be Kipp’s favourite. The Internet is more often than not described as the most influential and revolutionary medium in human history, so we are not surprised to read that 74 percent of respondents said that having access to the Internet changes the way they think about the world. Actually, come to think of it, we are surprised. One would have thought that the percentage would be much higher.

Finally, when it comes to gathering information about political affairs and, more specifically, the US elections it turns out that social media played a limited role. The majority of Generation Y said they mainly opt for TV and Internet research.

Do you think that the results of this European survey have any reflection on the Middle Eastern population? After all, both regions have many active social media and Internet users as well as a heavy expatriate to national ratio.

Tags: Us elections