Interest in politics, the news and social media
How do younger and older Canadians differ in their use of social media to get information about politics?
Are Canadians – and particularly young Canadians – becoming less interested in politics and the news?
Interest in politics may be a bit lower than it was several decades ago, but it has not declined more recently. Here’s the trend from 2010 to 2023:
Currently, 62 percent of Canadians have at least some interest in politics – a level that is a bit higher from where it stood in the early 2010s.
Interest is lower among younger adults (age 18 to 29) than among their older counterparts (age 60 and older). But the gap between age groups has actually narrowed a little compared to where it was a little over a decade ago – and the level of interest among younger adults has seen a modest increase.
Almost everyone also pays at least some attention to the news – specifically the news “whether on TV, the radio, newspapers, or the internet.” Six in ten pay attention daily, and almost nine in ten do so at least a few times a week. The proportion following the news daily, however, has dropped a bit over the past decade (again, in the case of news on TV, radio, newspaper or the internet).
In this case, the drop is more pronounced as you move from the oldest to the youngest age groups. And, while a majority of 18- to 29-year-olds say they are interested in politics, only one in three say now they pay attention to the news every day, whether on TV, radio, newspaper or the internet (all the political science professors who read this post exclaim: “I knew it!”).
The two questions combine as follows: the “disinterested” group that has little or no interest in politics and pays attention to the news less than a few times a week stands at 18 percent for 18- to 29-year-olds, 13 percent for 30- to 44-year-olds, seven percent for 45- to 59-year-olds, and four percent for those age 60 and older.
The remaining question is whether younger Canadians are replacing traditional news media with social media, as a source of information about politics. The evidence of this is more equivocal than we might expect.
More than one in two Canadians (57%) see political information on social media at least a few times a week. But younger adults are not really that different in this regard. Among 18- to 29-year-olds, 62 percent say they see political information on social media at least a few times a week, which is barely above average. The proportion is higher among the next older age group (68% for those age 30 to 44), and only a little lower for those age 45 to 59 (53%) and those age 60 and older (48%).
The real difference across age groups is that those age 45 and older are more likely to say they never use social media to get information about politics.
It can be helpful again to combine questions, this time looking at people who: (a) express at least some interest in politics; and (b) see political information on social media at least a few times a week. This group is a little larger for adults under 45 years old, but overall, the differences among age groups are pretty modest.
But, whereas almost no young adults who are interested in politics never get political information on social media, one in four older Canadians fall into this group. In other words, it’s not that there are a lot of younger people who use social media more to get information about politics, it’s that there is a sizeable proportion of older people who use it less.
Finally, let’s look at the “substitution effect” – how many people use social media to get information about politics, but don’t pay attention to TV, radio, or newspapers or news websites?
Not surprisingly, using all news sources is much more common: no fewer than one in two people in each of the four age groups do both (they pay attention to the news at least a few times a week and get political information on social media at least a few times a week).
Young adults are a little more likely to get information on social media without also following traditional news sources (which, in this discussion, include the internet), but this group is very small (it’s eight percent of the 18- to 29-year-old group, compared to literally nobody age 60 and older).
What’s more noticeable is that the group that does things the other way around – that is, the old-fashioned way, following the traditional new sources without getting political information on social media – is much larger among those age 45 and older, especially those age 60 and older, where it reaches 47 percent.
Here’s the recap:
Overall, interest in politics has not declined over the past decade.
Younger adults are a little less interested in politics and the news, but the difference shouldn’t be exaggerated. Fewer than one in five younger adults fall into the “disinterested” group that is neither interested in politics nor pays attention to the news.
Younger adults don’t really stand out as using social media much more than average to get information about politics. The outliers are older Canadians, because a sizeable proportion never uses social media to get political information (even if they are interested in politics).
The data presented in this post are from the Canadian portion of the 2023 AmericasBarometer. The AmericasBarometer is a biennial comparative survey of democratic values and behaviours that covers countries in North, Central and South America, as well as a significant number of countries in the Caribbean (the 2023 survey covers 25 countries). The project is led by the Latin American Public Opinion Project (LAPOP) at Vanderbilt University.
The survey is the most comprehensive source of information about support for democracy in Canada. Follow the Environics Institute to catch more reports from this survey.
The 2023 AmericasBarometer in Canada survey was conducted by the Environics Institute for Survey Research, in partnership with LAPOP at Vanderbilt University. It was conducted online with a representative sample of 2,500 Canadians (aged 18 and over) between July 20 and August 4, 2023. The author is solely responsible for any errors of presentation or interpretation.
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