New ABC News/Facebook Poll on The Election and The Internet

The recent ABC News / Facebook poll on The Election and The Internet finds that for the first time the net is poised to overtake newspapers as the second most used source of campaign news and information for Americans with television remaining primary but continuing to slip.

However, the most interesting finding is that internet users are more engaged, involved and report higher levels of issue understanding and commitment to volunteering and voting versus all others.

And, of course, the online population skews young with 71% under the age of 50. The survey echoes a lot of what we've been saying, especially in our report The Progressive Politics of the Millennial Generation. The poll further states:

"It follows that online political information users hold some views associated with younger age groups – more likely to support gay civil unions, legal abortion and a legalstatus program for illegal immigrants. Online political information users also are more apt than other Americans to define themselves as liberals, 27 percent vs. 17 percent, and somewhat less apt to be conservatives, 31 percent vs. 38 percent. Conservatism peaks, at 46 percent, among people who don't use the Internet at all."