In the study, Pew looked at eight different major news events over the past year. They compared each event in terms of positive and negative opinions – on one side stemming from public opinion polls and on the other side Twitter reaction. What they found was that most of the time, the sentiment expressed by Twitter users didn’t align with the sentiment expressed by Americans in national polls.

Take for instance the times in which Twitter reaction was much more “liberal” than public opinion polls showed. When President Obama was reelected, 52% of those asked in public opinion polls were “happy” about it, as opposed to 45% that were “unhappy.” But on Twitter, his reelection generated 77% positive feedback.

And in February 2012, when the California gay-marriage ban was deemed unconstitutional, only 8% of Twitter users had a negative reaction to it. Public opinion polls showed that 44% did.

Twitter doesn’t always lean more liberal, however. Take for instance Obama’s recent inaugural speech. Although 48% of the public opinion poll respondents reacted positively toward it, only 13% of Twitter users did.

In only two of the eight cases studied did public opinion match well with Twitter sentiment.

But in general, Twitter users tend to lean more Democratic and younger.

Twitter users are not representative of the public. Most notably, Twitter users are considerably younger than the general public and more likely to be Democrats or lean toward the Democratic Party. In the 2012 news consumption survey, half (50%) of adults who said they posted news on Twitter were younger than 30, compared with 23% of all adults. And 57% of those who posted news on Twitter were either Democrats or leaned Democratic, compared with 46% of the general public.

One final thought from Pew:

“At times the Twitter conversation is more liberal than survey responses, while at other times it is more conservative. Often it is the overall negativity that stands out.”

So we can’t always count on Twitter to accurately depict the views of all Americans. But one thing we can count on is that, more often than not, Twitter users are going to give you the cynical side of things.

According to the survey, one in four users say they plan to cut back on Facebook usage this year. 3% of them say they plan to spend more time on the site, 27% say they plan to spend less time on the site, and 69% say they plan to spend around the same amount of time on the site.

“Young adults are the most likely forecasters of decreased engagement,” says Pew. “Some 38% of Facebook users ages 18-29 expect to spend less time using the site in 2013, although a majority of users across age groups anticipate that their Facebook usage will remain largely stable in the year to come.”

Two thirds of online American adults are Facebook users, according to Pew, and 61% of current Facebook users say that at one time or another in the past they have voluntarily taken a break from the social network for a period of several weeks or more. 20% of the online adults who don’t currently use Facebook say they used to. 8% of those who don’t use it say they’re interested in doing so in the future.

These are the most popular reason researchers were given for why people took breaks from Facebook:

Perhaps more telling are the verbatim reasons Pew shares:

“I was tired of stupid comments.”

“[I had] crazy friends. I did not want to be contacted.”

“I took a break when it got boring.”

“It was not getting me anywhere.”

“Too much drama.”

“You get burned out on it after a while.”

“I gave it up for Lent.”

“I was fasting.”

“People were [posting] what they had for dinner.

“I didn’t like being monitored.”

“I got harassed by someone from my past who looked me up.”

“I don’t like their privacy policy.”

“It caused problems in my [romantic] relationship.”

Anyway, motivations aside, Pew found that on average, Americans over the age of 18 send and receive 41.5 texts per day. Women are a bit more text-happy than men, but not by much (42 to 40.9). As you may expect, those aged 18-29 tip the scale with an average of 87.7 texts per day. On the flip side, text messaging seniors (65 and older) only send and receive 4.7 texts on average.

And there’s not just an age discrepancy – there’s an ethnic one as well. Black texters are much more text-happy than White and Hispanic users, seeing 70.1 texts every day compared to 31.2 and 48.9, respectively.

It also turns out that poorer, less-educated users send out more texts per day on average.

Pew also found that a large majority of cell phone users use text messaging. In all, 80% of all phone owners send or receive texts. When you look demographically, you find that young people are the most prolific texters again. 97% of those surveyed between the ages of 18 and 29 are texters.

Earlier this month, Twitter announced that users had sent over 20 million Hurricane Sandy-related tweets during the six-day period of the storm hitting and its immediate aftermath. They also said that at one point, search queries for Sandy on the site peaked at 20% of total search queries. That means that people were not only tweeting about the disaster, but also turning to Twitter for information.

But just how many of those tweets really qualified as important, information-heavy dispatches? Well, according to a study from Pew, just shy of 60%.

Pew says that from the day the storm made landfall to two days after that, 34% of the Hurricane Sandy tweets consisted of news and information. Another 25% consisted of photos and videos.

The rest of the tweets were made up of jokes, hopes and prayers, political commentary, and “excitement” (Yay! the Hurricane is coming, school’s going to be cancelled!). Sure, you can argue that hopes and prayer or even jokes have their benefit. But when you talk about pure information that can be used during the crisis, 59% of the tweets fit the bill.

Of course, breaking from the ranks of the uninformed doesn’t imply that you’ll break from the ranks of the misinformed, but that’s a whole other argument.

Voters in 2012 have a distinct advantage over voters of the past. The internet and the rise of online video has given them a wellspring of information. Sorting through all of it to find the good and weed out the bad is one thing – but at least it’s all there for the taking. Pew’s study finds that a significant portion of registered voters are viewing and sharing online political videos this election season.

55% of all registered voters and 66% of internet-savvy registered voters say they’ve taken to the interwebs to watch online political videos this season. Here’s a more specific breakdown:

• 48% of internet-using registered voters watch video news reports online about the election or politics
• 40% watch previously recorded videos online of candidate speeches, press conferences, or debates
• 39% watch informational videos online that explain a political issue
• 37% watch humorous or parody videos online dealing with political issues
• 36% watch political advertisements online
• 28% watch live videos online of candidate speeches, press conferences, or debates

And Pew says that 40% of internet-using voters have accessed said political videos via social media recommendation.

Is there a party line discrepancy? Not really, says Pew:

“There are very few partisan differences when it comes to watching political videos, or to having them recommended by other people. Democratic and Republican voters are equally likely to have watched political videos online this election season, to have recommended online political videos to other people, and to have received such recommendations from others. However, registered voters who identify as liberal are more likely to have had political videos recommended to them on a social networking site this election season than moderate or conservative voters.”

Information is out there, if you’re willing to find it. In future elections, the availability of streaming and static video will only increase. While we can’t know the exact content of the videos this sample of the electorate accessed, we do know that over half were engaged enough to seek it out.

We can tell you that thanks to a study from Pew Research’s Internet and American Life Project, which asked voting age adults about their online political activities this summer.

According to the survey, 60% of Americans participate in some form of social media like Facebook or Twitter. Out of those 60%, 66% had performed at least one of Pew’s eight “political activities.” That mean that 39% of all American adults are being political on social media sites.

Here are the eight “political activities” that Pew asked about:

Liking content on political or social issues; encouraging people to vote; posting their own political thoughts; reposting other’s political posts; encouraging others to take action on an issue; posting links to political articles; joining a political group; following elected officials and candidates.

The most common political activity was liking or promoting someone else’s political content. 38% said they had done that. 35% said that they had used social media to encourage others to vote, and 34% of social media users posted their own political content. Liberal Democrats and Conservative Republicans are the two most-likely groups to post their own political thoughts on social media.

Only 20% of social media users said they followed politicians on Facebook, Twitter, Google+, etc. Conservative Republicans were more likely to have done so.

As you may expect, younger Americans were more likely to perform all eight of the political activities. The 65 and older group were the least likely to do all eight activities except for one – reposting political content (it’s the chain email for the new era!).

Also found in this study: 100% of people won’t think twice about unfollowing or unfriending you if you say something they don’t agree with.*

*Though true, not found in this Pew study.

[Image Courtesy Nedral, Flickr]

Out of those surveyed in a recent Pew Research poll, 56% said that they watched the first debate between President Obama and Mitt Romney live. Out of those live viewers, only 3% watched it via the internet exclusively – but 11% of those surveyed said that they spread their viewing across television and online at the same time, making them the coveted “dual-screener” group that online sites and social media outlets like to tout.

The point is, television still rules. 85% said that they watched the debates live on their TVs exclusively.

Unsurprisingly, the numbers change when you look at different age groups. Young people were much more likely to use the internet to watch the debate. Among respondents aged 18-39, 10% streamed the debate online exclusively, and 22% identified as dual-screeners. On the flip side, those aged 65 and older watched that debate on television at a rate of 98%.

Of course, watching the debate isn’t the only way to interact. Posting about it on social media sites like Facebook and Twitter is also a big part of any national community event like a Presidential debate. Here’s what Pew has to say about that:

“Only about a third of those who followed the debate in real time online – representing 5% of the overall debate audience– say they shared their own reactions to the debate online. This includes 8% of live debate watchers younger than 40 and 5% of those 40-to-65. No real-time debate watchers 65 and older reported sharing their reactions online while the debate was going.”

When it comes to getting news about the debates (not watching them live), television still ruled (70% of the respondents). Online news grabbed 29% of people’s attention and social media sites attracted 22% of them. Over half of those surveyed under 40 got at least some debate news from and online/social media source.

Despite this, YouTube says that the live stream of the first Presidential debate was one of their biggest live-streamed events ever. Do you go online for you live political events, or do you stick to the tube?

According to a recent report from their Internet & American Life Project, 56% of adult internet users posts photos or videos online. That means interacting visually with networks like Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter, and Instagram.

Pew breaks down these media distributors into two categories: Creators and Curators.

Creators are those who share photos and videos that they have taken themselves. They found that 45% of internet users post their own photos to social networks, while 18% post their own videos.

Curators are those who share photos and videos that they’ve found online, but didn’t produce themselves. According to the report, 35% of internet users curate photos, while 25% curate videos.

“The internet has always been a platform for creators and curators,” said Pew Internet’s Joanna Brenner, co-author of the report. “Now, as social media services continue to grow and expand, the tools are more visual and social, and that seems to be attracting special audiences of early adopters.”

The true content distributors, those that both create and curate, make up about one-third of the online adult population (32%).

In terms of creators, they are predominately younger. 67% of those aged 18-29 share their own photos, along with 50% of those aged 30-49. The same goes for videos, as 33% of 18-29-year-olds and 18% of 30-49-year-old share their own content. As far as curators go, the younger crowd also rules. Women, as a group, are also more likely to be curators or photos and videos.

This includes things like debating political issues with other people. 32% of Democrats said that social networks are at least somewhat important for that activity, compared with only 24% of Republicans and 23% of Independents. Democrats also think that social networking sites are important for keeping up with political news by a margin of 48% to 34% over Republicans.

Democrats, over Republicans, also think social media is a good tool for recruiting people to get involved with issues, and finding people that are likeminded politically.

For Democrats, social media also spurs involvement:

“Democrats and liberals who use social networking sites are more likely than others to say their activities on the sites have led them to become more active: 33% of SNS-using Democrats say this, compared with 24% of both SNS-using Republicans and SNS-using independents. Some 39% of SNS-using liberals say their use of the sites has gotten them more involved in an issue, compared with 24% of SNS-using conservatives and 21% of SNS-using moderates.” says Pew.

Liberals, in general, are just more likely to use social media like Facebook and Twitter. 74% of internet-using liberals use social networking sites. Only 60% of internet-using conservatives do. Pew says that no statistical difference existed when you compare “Democrats” and “Republicans,” as opposed to “Liberals” and “Conservatives.”

When you look at the entirety of social media users, only 16% say that they have changed some aspect of their political views due to social media activity. 25% say that it has made them more involved in politics, and only 9% say it has made them less involved.

No matter who you are and what your party affiliation is, it might be a good idea to at least filter your political comments just a little bit. 18% of respondents admitted to blocking, hiding, or unfriending someone based on a political post. But on the other hand, 16% said they have followed or friended someone specifically because of a political post.

Ok, do you have it? Good. If the word you’re thinking of is negative, you side with the majority in a new Pew Research poll that looks to determine how Romney’s image is changing over time.

Here’s what Pew had to say about their survey of over 1,000 American voters:

“Overall, 42% of the words volunteered by respondents are clearly negative, most commonly liar, arrogant, crook, out of touch, distrust and fake. Fewer (28%) offer words that are clearly positive in tone, such as honest, good, leadership, and capable. The remaining 30% of words are more descriptive and neutral in their tone, including businessman, rich, conservative, and Republican. As the campaign progresses, fewer Americans are offering neutral descriptions of Romney, but people continue to have more negative than positive things to say about him.”

The top three words used to describe Romney? “Honest,” “Businessman”" and “Rich.” Interestingly enough, those choosing to describe Romney as “Honest” increased 700% from March of this year. Only one more person chose “Rich” than did in March.

Possibly the biggest takeaway from this poll is that fewer people are choosing to identify Romney with his Mormonism first and foremost. In October of 2011, 60 people chose the word “Mormon” to describe Romney. In this latest poll, that number has decreased to 8.

Check out Pew’s word distribution below:

Oddly enough, nobody (or not enough to register) chose to describe Romney as a “Unicorn,” even though that’s been one of the top Google autocomplete results for months: