With the ever-increasing use of social media by young people, Poll Position wanted to know if Americans think social media is helpful or harmful to the social development of today’s youth.
In a national telephone survey of registered voters, 53% said it is harmful, 20% said it is helpful in the social development of youth, 17% said it is not making a difference either way and 11% did not offer an opinion.
Men and women shared similar views on the question with 53% saying social media is harmful to the social development of young people.
Among men, 22% said it is helpful, 17% said it is not making a difference and 9% had no opinion.
Among women, 18% found social media helpful in the social development of young people, 17% said it is not making a difference, 13% did not have an opinion.
By a smaller margin than the national average, young people in the 18-29 year old age group found social media more harmful than helpful with 47% choosing harmful versus 35% who thought it was helpful to the social development of today’s youth. Sixteen percent said social media is not making a difference and 3% did not offer an opinion.
See a breakdown of survey participants by age, race, gender, and political affiliation in crosstabs for this poll at http://media.pollposition.com.s3.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/Poll-Position-Crosstbas-Social-media-helpful-or-harmful.pdf.
Poll Position’s scientific telephone survey of 1,200 registered voters nationwide was conducted November 13, 2011 and has a margin of error of ±3%. Poll results are weighted to be a representative sampling of all American adults.
What do you think? Is social media helpful or harmful to the development of today’s youth? Vote in our online companion poll and comment at http://pollposition.com/2011/11/15/53-social-media-harmful/.
The online companion poll in which you can vote provides unscientific results, meaning it’s a tally of participating Poll Position users, not a nationally representative sampling.
Poll Position is committed to transparency and upholding the highest professional standards in its polling, explaining why we provide you with the crosstabs of our scientific polls. Crosstabs provide a breakdown of survey participants by age, race, gender, and political affiliation.
Learn more about Poll Position’s polling methodology at http://pollposition.com/2011/09/26/our-polling-methodology/.
Poll Position is a unique non-partisan news, polling, and social media company founded and lead by two award-winning CNN news and polling veterans. The company’s goals are to engage, enlighten, and entertain millions of people with exclusive news-making, buzz-generating public opinion polls and giving people everywhere an opportunity to vote and comment on hot topics, while learning the views of others.
To learn more about Poll Position, go to http://www.pollposition.com
