CONNECTED (WITH) YOUTH

Blurred boundaries between the online and offline world changed the patterns of information consumption and day-to-day communication. While every generation is marked by societal, political and technological developments of their decades, today’s youth is the first generation already growing up on social media with mobile phones in their hands. Information overflow, spread of disinformation and consequential distrust are not just buzz terms but constitute key phenomena affecting societal behaviour.

Understanding youth is vital to us in the context of evaluating societal dynamics (and, potentially, predicting developments). Our new report Connected (with) Youth: Information consumption, trust and influencers examines how young people aged between 16 – 24 years perceive and consume information, whom they consider as a role model and what content they prefer.

Main findings:

1. Parents and relatives belong among the most trustful and relevant opinion-shapers: 91% of respondents tended to agree that the opinion of parents is important for them.
2. A great variety and accessibility of sources trespassing national boundaries make it more difficult to identify a few key influencers among the youth.
3. Nevertheless, top recurring influencers among young Slovaks were rappers Ego, Rytmus and Kali, radio and YouTube host Sajfa and the President of the Slovak Republic, Andrej Kiska.
4. Facebook still plays a key role as an information source while Instagram and YouTube were more considered to be “leisure activities”. 88% of all respondents admitted receiving information about world affairs from Facebook.
5. There is a disbalance between “readers” and “sharers” on Facebook - only 26% of respondents claimed they usually shared posts of others.
6. Alongside with family, friends are an important source of influence on social media. 39% of respondents claimed to receive information on current affairs on Facebook through articles shared by friends.
7. Instagram accounts of youth magazines and accounts specialised in young and entertaining content resonate among Slovak youth on Instagram - Interez.sk, Refresher or EMEFKA SK/CZ were the three most commonly mentioned as favourite Instagram accounts.
8. YouTube is being used for similar purposes as TV, 65% of respondents claimed to watch their favourite channels regularly.
9. Young people care - 94% of respondents claimed to be interested in current domestic and world affairs.

Read more in the report below.

Slovenská verzia je dostupná tu: https://www.globsec.org/publications/mladi-a-dovera/