Shayne Jacopian for redOrbit.com – @ShayneJacopian
According to a study on the information habits of people aged 18-34, the Millennial generation is anything but “news-less”.
Many of the writers at redOrbit fall under the “Millennial” categorization, and we gave serious consideration to saving this study for our This Week in Obvious Science column.
[STORY: This week in obvious science]
Seriously, did you think that all of the time spent with our noses in our phones was spent looking at memes, cat GIFs, viral videos, and talking to our friends about how hot so-and-so looked at such-and-such awards show last night?
OMG! WAIT!
I mean, we do that, but we’re also reading the news
The study revealed that about 70% of Millennials get news at least once a day, with 40% consuming news several times throughout the day, out of a mix of civic motivation, problem solving needs, and a need for something to talk about with friends.
Additionally, a lot of Millennials get their news from tablets and smartphones, with a common medium being social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook. However, they’re not getting a narrowed view of the world in doing so—70% of news-consuming Millennials report following diverse viewpoints and investigating those different from their own on a routine basis.
[STORY: Do fart-filtering underpants actually work?]
The coolest thing this study finds is that Millennials don’t just sit down and read a newspaper in the morning or watch the news at night. Instead, with news constantly available on devices that they use constantly anyway, Millennials can stay informed continuously throughout the day. Who knows? Maybe we’ll end up being the most well-read generation.
That is, until news is just pumped into our brains via embedded chips.
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