Young Voters Share Their Experiences via Phone and In-Person, Not Just on the Interwebs

So, like, surprise! It might not be interesting that young people are moving towards online activism, but just so that the MSM knows what's going on, I will pull out a quote from Pew's latest study, entitled, Internet's Role in Campaign 2008: "Among young voters and those with broadband connections the Internet has eclipsed traditional media like television, radio and newspapers, the survey found." That's right, the Internet has WON! (By being the most democratic, open-source place for news, information and fact-checking.)

* 49% of Obama voters shared text messages related to the campaign with others; 29% of McCain voters did so.
* 17% of Obama supporters and 7% of McCain supporters got text messages directly from a candidate or party.

This makes sense. Businesses like CREDO Mobile, a Working Assets project, link progressive organizers, activists and everyday citizens. Given that young people are the most likely demographic to own only a cell phone, outfits like CREDO and others that connect organizers to mobile phone users should stand to gain a lot as progressive activists build upon the online organizing lessons of 2008. One of those lessons is that online video works! (If you haven't checked it out already, watch FM's own Sarah Burris on why paying taxes is important--the video was picked up live on CNN yesterday.)

Video advocacy is becoming even easier, because you can broadcast from your mobile phone using Qik. The flexibility of broadcasting yourself from your mobile means that folks can spend less time behind a computer, and more time doing advocacy when and where they want. Also, videos are a better medium to reach youth of color and those in low income communities, so 2010 may be the first real test of how Qik and online videos can be used to target younger folks that are generally left out of the political process. (Shana Glickfield over at NextGenWeb.org has a nice summary of how to use video advocacy.)

The Pew study also confirms that young voters are very active politically on social networking sites, and are the most likely age group to "customize political or election news." Young folks understand that you still need to make the Internet personal. Customizing a message for a target audience, whether that be high school students or union members, helps increase the probability that they will read (and possibly re-customize and share) the message.

While many young people are digital collaborators, they still haven't forgot the power of personal communication. The 2008 election wasn't about young voters on Facebook; it was about young voters talking to each other (using any medium) about politics and the election. I'll say it again because it bears repeating if you want to work with the Millennial generation: PEER-TO-PEER works! With all of the information available today, folks need someone they can trust to help them navigate and validate that information. This means that sending a surrogate on behalf of a candidate is probably less likely to win votes than if you were to organize a group of young people to reach out to their friends and peers.