The endless polls about young people are endlessly confusing—are we libertarian or authoritarian? Self-centered or self-sacrificing? Snowden sympathizers or NSA fans?
Now a new survey of 18-49 year-olds from USA Network finds that, contrary to multiple other polls, young people are concerned about privacy and may be willing to change their online behavior accordingly.
Color me somewhat skeptical of the results, however, which found that a majority–55 percent–said they would not join social media if they could do it over again.
I suspect these protestations are a little dishonest—like when your best friend complains how much she totally hates seeing her ex’s Facebook activity, as she simultaneously executes a stalker-level sweep of every interaction he’s had with a female in the last month. (And while the survey purports to study Generation Y, 49 year olds hardly represent the “young” people of America.)
The survey found that 75 percent said they were at least somewhat likely to shut down their accounts in the event of more majority security hacks. Contrast that to a Gallup poll earlier this year, which found that millennials are more likely to entrust private data to businesses than any other generation; or this study from the Media Insight Project, which found only 2 in 10 millennials worry a great deal about privacy.
In the USA Network survey, 53 percent identified cyber warfare as a bigger threat than physical warfare.
The online survey polled 1,000 18-49 year olds in May.
(h/t TechCrunch)
