Millennials were the most talkative group of online users immediately leading up to, during, and after Thursday’s Republican primary debate in Cleveland, according to the social intelligence company Synthesio.
The company tracked mentions related to the prime-time political event across social media, mainstream media sites, blogs, and forums and ultimately found that young Americans were significantly more engaged than their elders online.
Just over 30 percent of all online mentions came from 25 to 34-year-olds and 28.7 percent came from the younger segment of millennials, ages 18 to 24, according to data shared with the Washington Examiner. The combined 60 percent of mentions coming from millennials online was approximately three times larger than the 22.5 percent of mentions coming from Generation Xers, ages 35 to 54.
“When you look at the last 10 years or the last 15, you know the engagement with millennials has never been more higher when it comes to political [and] social activism,” MSNBC’s Chuck Todd recently told The Hill.
“I push back on this notion that millennials are not engaged or apathetic,” Todd said. “They’re just looking at the old process and thinking that accomplished nothing, this gridlock is getting us nothing, so they’re engaged in the process we have, they’re just going about it a different way.”
Synthesio’s vice president of global marketing, Leah Pope, described the magnitude of millennials discussing the debate online as unsurprising since “they are the ones leading the charge in the use of social media today.”
However, the growth of social media, and the unrivaled frequency with which millennials use it, has created a “whole new ball game for politicians,” according to Pope.
“Social media is now, not only a primary tool to reach voters, but also the way to better understand voters,” Pope told the Examiner. “We are constantly seeing millennials use social media now for causes that they believe in, and I don’t see a reason why we won’t continue to see this level of passion throughout this entire election process.”
Ariel Miles, a millennial herself who manages a local political campaign in Woodbury, New Jersey, says she’s been “pleasantly surprised” by her peers’ increased engagement.
“When I went onto Facebook last night after the debate, I expected a few friends to have posted things. But what I saw blew my mind,” Miles told the Examiner. “So many more of my friends were posting and sharing and had actually watched the debate that have never been involved, active or even interested in politics.”
While social media has boosted the number of young Americans paying attention to the 2016 presidential campaign, it remains to be seen whether online engagement translates to participation on election day.
According to a recent Pew Research Center report, millennials are slated to become the largest generational group in the U.S. this year with approximately 75.3 million Americans in the 18 to 34-year-old age range.
Since it’s unlikely Americans will be able to vote through social media come Nov. 8, 2016 — although 49 percent of millennials wish they could — the 22 presidential hopefuls will have to amass millennial support offline in the coming months if they intend to someday occupy the White House.
