There are substantial age differences in respondents’ media diets. The average age of people who prefer to get their news from newspapers or television news programs is 56 and 53 years old, respectively. The average age of people who use Facebook as their main information platform drops to 47 and 38 when it comes to Twitter.
However, the proportion of respondents under 45 who chose Facebook as their preferred media is equal to the proportion of respondents over 45 who chose it. This means that this is the most used media platform in the younger group and the second most used in the older group (surpassed, by two points, by television news programs). [Note that survey participants were recruited through Facebook, email and WhatsApp.]
There is a large difference between both groups in the consumption of information through television news programs (73% in the older group and 59% in the younger group), Instagram (8% in the older group and 42% in the younger group), Twitter (12% in the older group and 36% in the younger group), political parties or movements (26% in the older group and 48% in the younger group), activism or activist pages (8% in the older group and 37% in the younger group) and non-partisan organizations (7% in the older group and 24% in the younger group). In general, respondents under 45 years of age consume information through a greater variety of media platforms, , unlike people over 45 who seem to get most of their information through three sources: news programs, Facebook, and newspapers.
There are also significant age gaps in civic engagement. Most of the respondents under 45 years of age (55%) participated in the protests to oust Roselló during the summer of 2019, while only 22% of those over 45 said they participated. Regarding electoral participation, it’s interesting to note the age gap of active voters in 2016 (87% of those over 45 years old said they had voted compared to 67% of those under 45 years old) disappeared in 2020 (94% among those over 45 years of age over 45 and 97% among those under 45).
Respondents’ partisan identification also differs considerably by age. While the PNP and PPD enjoy higher levels of support among those over 45 (41% and 29%, respectively) compared to those under 45 (11% and 14%, respectively), the opposite is true in the case of MVC and PIP. Both parties have higher levels of support among the younger group (27% and 22%, respectively) than among the older group (5% and 10%, respectively).
Likewise, there are substantial age discrepancies in what respondents identify as the major problems facing Puerto Rico today. Those under 45 are more likely than those over 45 to point to corruption as the biggest problem. Other notable differences by age — although these problems were not ranked among the most important — are evident in the case of “the lack of family, religious and/or moral values” (much more important for those over 45 years of age than for the under 45 years) and “the rights of the LGBTQIA+ community” (much more important for those under 45 than for the older group). This simple analysis suggests that there may be a generation gap in the priority given to different social problems.