This report by the National Literacy Trust explores confidence in communicating on a range of issues including politics and climate. It found that while young adults today were reassuringly confident expressing their opinions, there were noteworthy gender divides when it came to speaking about specific subjects related to industries where diverse representation and understanding of STEM disciplines are essential.
In an increasingly digital world where opinions and values appear more and more polarised, engaging in debate may feel volatile or dangerous. Almost every day on Twitter, the opinions of a public figure will be criticised, screenshotted, deleted and discussed across news and other social media platforms. Meanwhile, any individual’s opinions, whether on Twitter and other social media platforms or comments on a news website, can be subject to abuse or trolling, while it is equally easy for misinformation and misrepresentation to incite anger when faced with dissenting opinions. This also then feeds into daily life, as social interactions can be subject to the same polarisation and sensitivity that can be seen online.
It is therefore crucial that young adults feel confident in making their opinions heard and feel empowered to engage with discussions and debates as stakeholders in society. Equally, where social and news medias have the power to amplify and warp opinions and ideas to a polarising extent, young adults should feel able and qualified to challenge and respond to ideas, whether in social or familial conversations, at work or through civic engagement.
This report explores the ways in which the young adults surveyed communicate and engage with the world in different ways. It looked at a range of different issues, with some important themes emerging around political, civic and social engagement.
Key Findings:
- In general, most young adults felt confident expressing their opinions, with 1 in 3 (32.0%) feeling very confident and over 1 in 2 (53.4%) feeling somewhat confident
- A slightly higher percentage of young men than young women said they felt confident overall (87.3% vs 84%)
- Nearly 9 in 10 (88.3%) young adults felt confident expressing their opinions in direct written communications, such as email or text message, while 3 in 4 felt confident speaking face to face (74.5%). 7 in 10 felt confident writing on social media (71.1%) and speaking on the telephone (68.6%). Only half (50.1%) of all the young adults felt confident speaking on social media, such as on Facebook Live or TikTok.
- 7 in 10 young adults felt confident expressing opinions about education (71.9%) and COVID-19 (70.8%), while 3 in 5 felt confident expressing opinions about climate (57.4%) and gender (56.1%). However, only 2 in 5 (44.1%) felt confident expressing opinions about politics
- There was little difference by gender for confidence in speaking about education, or COVID-19. However, markedly more young men than women felt confident speaking about politics (52.1% vs 36.7%) and climate (65% vs 50.4%), whereas slightly more young women than men felt confident speaking about gender (59.3% vs 51.9%)
- While nearly 9 in 10 (88.3%) young adults felt confident communicating via written formats (including email, text messages and letters), just over half (55.6%) felt confident writing a letter to challenge someone’s opinion or action, such as writing to an MP or a company.
- 2 in 5 (38.1%) young adults said that fear of saying the wrong thing contributed to a lack of confidence when expressing their opinions
- There was a marked difference by gender in this regard, with almost half (47.4%) of young women identifying this compared with 1 in 4 (27.4%) young men
- Around a quarter of young adults said that their mental health or wellbeing (26.7%), a fear of being judged (24.1%) or lack of knowledge on a particular subject (22.9%) had an impact on their confidence
- More than twice as many young women (32.9%) as men (14.4%) said that other people being involved and/or a fear of being judged was a contributing factor.