57.8% of the youth in Tamil Nadu use Twitter to express their opinions

Twitter is about serving the public conversation, highlighting what’s happening in the world and enabling people to talk about it right now. As part of its youth engagement initiative #PowerOf18, Twitter India unveils new research findings today specific to the youth sentiment in Tamil Nadu on social media and the elections at the Asian College of Journalism in Chennai. Panellists Sudarshan Ramabadran (@sudarshanr108), Senior Research Fellow and Administrative Head, Center for Soft Power, India Foundation and Convenor, Tamil Nadu Young Thinkers Forum, and Arun Krishnamurthy (@ArunEFI), Indian environmental activist with Environmentalist Foundation India, join Twitter at the #PowerOf18 college dialogue session, sharing their perspective on what it means to turn 18 and the importance of voting in the upcoming elections.

. ⁦@ACJIndia⁩ and ⁦@TwitterIndia⁩ present #PowerOf18 Dialogue on “The Role of Youth in Shaping India’s Future” on March 6. Catch the event live on ⁦@ACJIndia⁩ from 5:30 pm IST. pic.twitter.com/zKGTEGY0cg

— ACJ (@ACJIndia) March 6, 2019

Survey findings

Twitter is where people can serve the public conversation; two in three (66.9%) of the youth on Twitter in Tamil Nadu surveyed believe that they are contributing to the public debate by posting on the platform. More than half (58.4%) of the Twitter users surveyed will actively engage with and raise concerns to the government on issues that affect them or their community, versus 30.8% of those not on the platform. In addition, 57.8% of the youth in Tamil Nadu surveyed use Twitter to express their opinions and be heard, while 56% will use Twitter to gather support for a cause or movement.

Across the board, the population in India is politically active and the survey finds on average 98% of Tamil Nadu youth indicate that they would vote in the upcoming elections. This is the highest proportion of youth voter interest in comparison with all other states surveyed in the country. In comparison, Twitter users (99.4%) surveyed were more likely than those not on the platform (94.9%) to vote in the upcoming elections.

Over 85% of Tamil Nadu youth surveyed will turn to social media to find out what’s happening in India and around the world, according to the study’s findings. The rising importance of social media for information consumption is reinforced as Tamil Nadu youth surveyed rank social media platforms as the most important source for understanding what’s happening in India and around the world, in comparison to all other mediums including newspapers, TV, and public events.

This study^[1] is part of a larger nationwide survey conducted with 4,274 youth respondents from India between 24 September - 19 October 2018. The survey methodology qualifies the respondents as minimally secondary literate, aged between 18 - 35 years old. India is expected to have 34.33% share of youth (15 - 34 years old) in total population by 2020, according to the Ministry of Statistics and Program Implementation.

University Dialogues

Beyond the survey results, Twitter India invited Sudarshan Ramabadran, Senior Research Fellow and Administrative Head, Center for Soft Power, India Foundation and Convenor, Tamil Nadu Young Thinkers Forum, and Arun Krishnamurthy, Indian environmental activist with Environmentalist Foundation India to join in a panel discussion about the power of youth today and the importance of expressing their voice through voting, to be a part of the #PowerOf18 Dialogue sessions.

"If you have to bring change, you have to be a part of this system, and that's why I write to change," says @sudarshanr108 #PowerOf18 @ACJIndia @TwitterIndia

— Rishabh Bhatnagar (@Rish_Bhat) March 6, 2019

https://twitter.com/Rish_Bhat/status/1103264045778391040

https://twitter.com/ThatUnitedLady/status/1103241662678032386

https://twitter.com/pusharma53/status/1103268657730187265

https://twitter.com/Rish_Bhat/status/1103253300109991936

https://twitter.com/sick_smasher/status/1103243738917339138

https://twitter.com/LilMissMathew/status/1103240545265082373

#PowerOf18 Content Curation Partners

In order to effectively represent the diversity of issues, Twitter India has also identified key content partners to curate useful electoral information and offer different perspectives that will help the youth of India who are getting ready to vote see every side of the public conversation. Some of these partners include fact-checker @BOOM_Live, BBC India’s regional handles @BBCTamil, @BBCNewsPunjabi, among others.

How do you stay clear of fake information this election season? @boomlive_in tells us one of the ways in this video. #FactVsFiction #PowerOf18 pic.twitter.com/P44bLALh6x

— Twitter India (@TwitterIndia) February 18, 2019

https://twitter.com/TwitterIndia/status/1096301303112785920

The #PowerOf18 campaign is aimed at encouraging more youth in India to participate in civic engagement, understand the significance of their right to vote and contribute to public debate on Twitter. The campaign launch is marked by an emoji activated by the hashtag #PowerOf18 available now until June 2019.

Follow #PowerOf18 and @TwitterIndia to be a part of the conversation and community.