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.

Key highlights :

● Two out of three (66.9%) youth in Tamil Nadu surveyed believe that they are contributing to the public debate by posting on Twitter.

● More than half (58.4%) of the youth in Tamil Nadu on Twitter 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.

● As part of the #PowerOf18 dialogue session in Chennai, 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 share their perspective on what it means to turn 18 and the importance of voting

● The dialogue session features a special video from RJ Balaji (@RJ_Balaji) on the #PowerOf18

Key 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 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. The sharing session saw: