Notable Findings from Recent Years vs. Back in 2014

Findings (2022):

·         Lots of Americans are going cash-free.

·         By 1970, Christians could be a minority in America

·         A lot of White people are not in favor of reparations for Black people

……………………. It’s an almost 50/50 split for Democrats (which seems surprising)

·         Adults are getting their news from TikTok… I thought adults were barely allowed to use the platform so this comes as a surprise

·         Americans are finally catching on the Climate Change might be a thing

·         Americans are once again anti-Russian

·         American adults are very much in favor of a woman’s right to choose

·         The concept of Gender in our society is changing in our society and people need to learn acceptance

·         Americans claim they want equal coverage of “both sides” of a debate … though I doubt this aligns with the ratings for Fox News and MSNBC

·         Black men are getting hit hardest by drug overdoses fatalities

·         About 50% are teens are now what we refer to as “constantly online”

·         The Middle Class has been losing ground for the last 50 years

·         With the notable exception of the U.S., lots of countries around the globe believe social media is a force for good

What were we concerned with in 2021, you ask?

·         Americans having less children

·         Covid

·         Voter turnout

·         Increase in violence against Asian-Americans

·         The fragility of democracy

·         More women now have a Bachelor’s Degree

·         Republicans say voting is “a privilege” whereas Dems see voting as a right

·         Lack of religious affiliation continues to freak people out

·         More people report having heritage that is not simply “White”

·         Cable is losing to streaming

·         Fear about more extreme weather

·         Less people are getting married and are choosing to remain single

+++++

2020 Findings:

·         Democrats were more afraid of Covid

·         International travel was down…you guess it, because of Covid

·         Brexit was still talked about more

·         China was starting to feel more threatening

·         People were gearing up for elections

·         50% of Americans responded that they knew a person who had been hospitalized or died from complications related to Covid

·         Many thought we should learn a lesson from Covid, and about 1/3 of folks said they thought God was trying to teach us something or possibly punish us for our sins

·         U.S. lost favorability for reasons that can really truly only overall be attributed to Trump

·         The Right and Left started to have true animosity for each other with The Right actually wanting to get violent against liberals and progressives

·         Republicans turned sharply against news media

·         Interestingly, Democrats were tweeting the most

……………………. Guessing this has changed since Elon took over

·         Not everyone is on board with the terminology used by others as well as in-group members to define them (eg. Latinx)

·         About 50% of American believe the bible should influence U.S. law

·         BLM gained support after the tragic murder of George Floyd

·         People were very confused about what “Defund the Police” was actually about

·         More people were just starting to hear about a little known conspiracy group called QAnon

·         Many believed that social media platforms were intentionally censoring certain political viewpoints

+++++

For context, a look back to 2014:

·         GOP and Dems were more divided on … business as usual

·         Lacking a college degree was creating a significant earnings gap

·         Less folks were getting married

·         Chatter about people losing their religion

·         Race/Class/Gender gaps growing since Great Recession (2007/2008)

·         People were reporting it might be starting to get difficult to have a tech time out

……………………. More than 50% of internet users reported they’d struggle to give up internet use

……………………. About 50% said they’d struggle to give up their phone (only 50%!?)

……………………. 35% said it would be hard to give up TV

……………………. 28% still felt they needed a landline

·         Growing worries about internet privacy concerns and how data might be used by bad-actors

·         Essentially determined that Drugs Won the War on Drugs

·         People were realizing we live in information silos / bubbles and don’t interact with people who do not share our viewpoints

·         Print journalism was continuing to lose ground to digital platforms

·         People were stressed out about our immigration policies

……………………. Apparently, “unauthorized immigrant” adults were, on average, already in the U.S. for about 13 years in 2014 whereas that number was approximately 7 years back in 1995

·         Life seemed to be improving for emerging economies

·         People were starting to get worried about how to care for aging populations around the world