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Gaia Online Poll Finds Obama Has Captured Youth Support Last update: 12:38 p.m. EDT Oct. 30, 2008 SAN JOSE, Calif., Oct 30, 2008 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- Gaia Online, the leading online hangout of more than 7 million teens and young adults, today announced the launch of its monthly According to Teens Report, a monthly survey of Gaia members that will provide a regular update on the Generation Y perspective. With less than a week until Election Day, Gaia kicked off the program with an election poll to get a better understanding of how current and future voters view the race for the presidency. According to the survey of more than 37,000 respondents, 72 percent of teens and young adults would like to see Barack Obama as the next president of the United States. "This year's election was a natural fit for the launch of the According to Teens Report," said Scott Kinzie, VP of creative and user experience at Gaia Online. "At Gaia Online we have the unique ability to tap millions of Gen Yers and we believe it's imperative to understand what's guiding the youth vote. With this new survey program we're hoping to serve as a trusted source on all things teen, helping relevant parties better understand this often misunderstood generation." Following are additional highlights from the poll: Mind on Their Money Just when you thought only parental purse strings were feeling the pinch, 50 percent of teens surveyed said the economy is the most important issue of this election. Hey Smarty Pants Forty five percent of teens believe intelligence is the most important quality a president should possess. Thirty eight percent believe honesty is most important, while 13 percent believe experience is. What's Family Got To Do With It? Teens were split in their reaction to the Bristol Palin teen pregnancy controversy. Forty six percent said the issue should not impact Sarah Palin's vice presidential candidacy. Forty one percent view the pregnancy as ironic given Palin's support for abstinence-only education. Isms Du Jour When asked which --ism (ageism, racism or sexism) they thought has had the biggest impact on this year's election thus far, 62 percent of respondents selected racism. Ageism and sexism came in at a close second and third with 18 percent and 20 percent respectively. What Does It All Mean? The Gaia Online According to Teens election poll shows both current and future voters are extremely engaged in this year's election, a major shift from the apathy exhibited by teens and young adults during previous election cycles. This new generation of voters is acutely aware of the issues at hand, and young voter engagement is likely a trend with staying--power, proving to politicians on both sides of the aisle that this is a group they cannot afford to ignore. No matter what a young voters' stance is, next week it is important that teens and young adults nationwide get out and vote. About Gaia Online Founded in 2003, Gaia Online is the leading online hangout for teens and young adults. More than seven million visitors come to Gaia every month to make friends, play games, watch movies in Gaia Cinemas, Gaia's virtual theaters, and participate in the world's most active online community. Gaia provides a fun, social environment that inspires individuality and creativity. With everything from art contests to discussion forums on poetry, politics, celebrities and more, to fully customizable profiles, digital characters and cars, Gaia is a place where teens can create their own space and express their individual style. For more information, visit www.gaiaonline.com. SOURCE: Gaia Online Gaia Online Melissa Rische mrische@gaiaonline.com or Mullen for Gaia Online Kalley Thomas, 978-468-8934 kalley.thomas@mullen.com Copyright Business Wire 2008 End of Story

Posted by: Arwen Fri Oct 31, 2008 @ 02:56pm

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Chibigreen Tejinashi
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Commented on: Fri Oct 31, 2008 @ 07:43pm


	They actually published the results somewhere? Huh. I love how the report acts like: 1) there aren't any older adults on Gaia. 2) there aren't any users from other countries that participated in the polls. 3) that most Gaians actually thought about the issues before the poll presented them with options. And of course it completely doesn't discuss the quality of the poll, which many Gaians complained about (only representing the two major parties, etc, etc). But, hey, what can you expect? It's only the media. rolleyes

Commented on: Sat Nov 01, 2008 @ 07:12am


	Interesting. I didn't know Gaia was doing some polling campaign... I guess I should have realized it when I got that notice for the Aquarium poll. xp heh

Sevi Rais
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Arwen
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Commented on: Sun Nov 02, 2008 @ 04:17am


	Yeah ^^;; I wasn't happy about the part where they don't recognize the other "population" of Gaia Online. I actually stumbled upon this story checking information about the market xd Marketwatch.com

Commented on: Sun Nov 02, 2008 @ 02:22pm


	I have quite a few problems with this article: 1] Defining our generation as "gen Y" is lacking for two reasons: [1] It is nearly impossible to define a complete generation with one name tag. [2] Our generation is defined by its previous one "gen X", this tag says nothing about the characteristics of our generation. 2] Basing the political interest of "our generation" on a small poll on one website. One thing is obvious: first the writers say Gaia has 7 million accounts...of these only 37,000 responded. Who are the people who responded? I dare say that people who do not care about the elections did not fill out this poll. The conclusion that our generation cares more about politics than others can not be quantified. Not to mention that there might be other reasons why we are more interested in politics this time around: we have one candidate who is very media-savvy and has made a very costly and intense effort to reach out to young Americans. Bush jr, Bush sr and Clinton did not do this. The results of this poll are useless, they tell nothing about what "young people think of the elections". They only tell us something about what one group of - international, to boot - people visiting one particular website thought of some issues and were only given the chance to answer multiple choice questions. For this poll to mean anything it should have asked some questions that would have made it obvious who was filling it out. Questions like age, nationality, income <of parents>, education, race and sex should have been asked. Also sent this to Melissa Rische. If I ever get an answer I will try to publish it in my journal.

Aldo
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Arwen
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Commented on: Sun Nov 02, 2008 @ 09:29pm


	hahaha XD A friend of mine calls thegeneration we're in Retarded Generation...mainly because most of the population is "I don't care..." sigh All the things people fought (in the past) for and it is all thrown out.

Commented on: Mon Nov 03, 2008 @ 11:33pm


	I like to dub this generation the alt-tab generation. We're the best at multitasking, after all. domokun -- And to be honest, the baby boomers did a damned good job throwing out all things they protested for when they were young.

Aldo
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Taijia_Sango
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Commented on: Thu Nov 06, 2008 @ 09:56pm


	my 2 cents I wasn't even aware gaia was holding this poll but, as i am sure it has been said.....it is completely inaccurate and misleading. Supposed Gen-Y'ers are not the only ones who participated in the poll, so that throws off the numbers. I also have a sever doubt that most of the so called young-ins had any idea what they were really discussing beyond their own parents biases. But that's another story. 7 million users? O.o wow way to distort the truth. Since the average Gaian has at least ONE mule account, that makes approx. 3.5 million users. Then you need to subtract approx 1 million to account for the bots, so that makes 2.5 million. THEN you need to subtract all the abandoned accounts because Gaia doesn't allow you to delete an account....i would say that would be at lease another 1 million.....so AT MOST 1.5 million users. Now I want to mention that international users (those outside the U.S. have a right to a say because what happens in the U.S. afftects them to due to the global market....so it isn't right to discount them. Anyways....so in a round about way of saying things...this poll is FAR from being scientific. There is no way to verify the age of all those who participated so it is highly negligent of Gaia to post something that essentially is a flat out lie. This is truly astounding and, frankly, kind of insulting.

Commented on: Thu May 21, 2009 @ 09:48pm


	Hello smile

poison wtf
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