A new national study of young people in the UK by the leading mobile phone price comparison website has revealed attitudes towards the general election and shows a large number would be more likely to vote if they could do so using text messaging or social media.

The UK’s leading mobile phone price comparison website www.rightmobilephone.co.uk has conducted research of 1,082 young people aged 18-25 and found that 36% of the respondents aren’t planning to vote in the general election this year, but 3 in 4 of those said they would if they could do so via text message or social media.

When asked, ‘are you planning to vote in the general election this year?’ more than a third said they wouldn’t. 42% claimed they didn’t really understand politics enough to vote, whilst 51% said they couldn’t be bothered to take the time to go to the polling stations. The remaining 7% said they thought their vote wouldn’t make a difference, therefore deeming it unnecessary.

Of those who were planning to opt out of the general election vote this year, 76% said they would be more likely to take part if they could place their vote via text or social media, such as a Facebook page or on Twitter.

Two thirds of the respondents, 66%, said that they had placed votes on a reality TV show in the past using their mobile, which was a higher number than the percentage who said they would be voting for the general election this year. Of those who would vote if they could do so by text or through social media, 19% weren’t concerned about privacy issues and other people finding out who they had voted for.

24% said there could be issues with people voting more than once, but this was a concern that didn’t stop 89% of the total respondents saying they thought voting via text would be possible after the next General Election.

Neil McHugh, co-founder of rightmobilephone.co.uk, said;

“As our results prove social media and mobile phones could be a very powerful way for political parties to interact and communicate with this generation. Twitter, Facebook and YouTube weren’t as established in previous elections, but now provide a far reaching platform for any political party who are savvy enough to include them in their election strategy. As for voting via your mobile phone, the concept is great but I think we are a few years away yet. Obviously privacy and security issues would be a concern along with the margin for error, but hopefully in the future it’s something that can be overcome and get more of the population making a difference.”

Alberto Nardelli, founder of Tweetminster.co.uk, a service which aims to make politics more transparent by giving users access to the Twitter posts from MPs and politicians, said;

“In the US, mobile campaigning played a central role in the past election, especially in terms of engaging and mobilising first time voters. It’s surprising than in the UK none of the parties place mobile at the core of their campaigns, more importantly in a context where young voters and first-time voters can be decisive, it will be interesting to see which party first experiments with mobile”.

LINK http://www.rightmobilephone.co.uk

LINK http://www.tweetminster.co.uk

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For further information or to set up interviews with Neil McHugh or James Zielinski please contact Shannon Haigh , 10 Yetis PR Agency, [email protected], 01452 348211.

Notes to editors

Rightmobilephone.co.uk was launched in November 2007 to help consumers save time and money by providing a trusted comparison platform for customers to purchase from.

The site has become the UK’s most comprehensive and user friendly mobile phone comparison engine, with 600,000+ mobile phone offers combined with user friendly consumer reviews, ratings and video.

Users can review and compare over 800 handsets with images, specifications and video with unique users reviews, opinions and ratings provided by handset owners and compare over 2000 + pay as you go offers and tariffs from all major networks.

New research by one of the UK’s leading experience day websites has found that 54% of 16 year olds only want to be famous when they are older, rather than opting for a more traditional career.

A new study by leading experience day website www.intotheblue.co.uk of 1,032 sixteen year olds has found that more than half of the respondents want to be famous when they are older, instead of branching into other professions. The research came after the site noticed an increase in the number of people searching for and buying the Superstar Singer experience days and Dance Lessons.

When asked ‘what would you like to be when you are older?’ over half said famous, compared to just 9% of the young people who wanted a legal career. 13% wanted a job in the media and 15% said they would like a career in medicine, such as nursing or becoming a GP.

Despite a large proportion of the young people wanting a lifestyle to match the rich and famous, 68% said they wouldn’t know how to go about becoming a celebrity. 21% said they would try to become nationally recognised through a reality TV show such as X Factor or Britain’s Got Talent, which is due to start on ITV soon.

Of the 54% who wanted to be a celebrity in the future, only 19% felt they had enough talent to make them worthy of fame.

Intotheblue.co.uk wanted to look into which celebrities acted as role models to the 54% who said they wanted to be famous. The stars that most respondents aspired to be like were;

1. Kate Moss

2. Wayne Rooney

3. Lady Gaga

4. Nicola T

5. Richard Branson

6. Davina McCall

7. Simon Cowell

8. Paris Hilton

9. Hugh Grant

10. Alex Reid

Rob Holmes, e-commerce and Marketing Manager at Intotheblue.co.uk, said;

“Our Superstar Singer experience days allow people to have some valuable studio time in which they can record their own track and a large increase in the popularity of such days prompted us to look into young people’s attitudes towards fame. We were quite surprised by the percentage of respondents who wanted to be famous rather than have a regular career and more so at some of the role models who came up.

He continued, “The fact that many of the young people don’t know how to go about becoming famous is a bit worrying and, although reality shows are sometimes a doorway to fame, another way is to develop talents through singing and dance lessons such as this. The Superstar Singer experience could be a good way for young people to start out.”

LINK http://www.intotheblue.co.uk

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For any more information on www.intotheblue.co.uk contact Charlotte Horsfall of 10 Yetis PR Agency on 01452 348211 or email on [email protected]

Editors Notes:

The website was launched in 1996 as only an Air Activity Gift Voucher site

www.intotheblue.co.uk offers over 600 experiences, including skydiving, tank driving, beauty spa experiences, water sports experiences and many more. This is a simple to use internet based business that prides itself on its customer friendly approach.