Internet Replaces Television as Main News Source for Young Adults!

For someone who vaguely remembers the advent of Television back in the 50's I have to say that the only thing constant about change is change itself!

The Internet is now the main national and international news source for people ages 18 to 29, a study from the Pew Research Center reports.

In 2010, 65% of people younger than 30 cited the Internet as their go-to source for news, nearly doubling from 34% in 2007.

The number who consider television as their main news source dropped from 68% to 52% during that time.

Of all 1,500 people adults surveyed, 41% say they get their national and international news from the Internet, up 17% from 2007.

Sixty-six percent cite television — down from 74% — indicating the trend is spreading among other age groups.

Forty-eight percent of those 30-59 cite the Internet as their main news source, up from 32% in 2007, while television went down from 71% to 63%.

Though the number of those in the 51-64 age group who consider television their main news source (71%) is about the same, those who turn to the Internet (34%) is nearly equal to the number who cite newspapers (38%).

The amount of people 65 and older who get their news from the Internet has risen from 5% to 14%, but television remains the chief source for 79% of respondents.

These numbers are in sync with the rise of both Facebook’s News Feed and Twitter launched in summer 2006 but didn’t catch on until 2007.

Both sites have seen explosive growth since 2008.

Tweet counts have increased from 5,000 daily in 2007 to 90 million daily in 2010, while Facebook went from 30 million users in 2007 to more than 500 million users today.

The Daily Galaxy