26 September 2008

At Amherst, only 1% of freshmen have landlines

Only 5 students out of this year's freshman class of 438 have landline service. That it's a low percentage is not surprising, but that fully 99% now rely on cell phones is startling.

One obvious point of relevance is that virtually all political preference surveys rely on landlines only. Cell phone owners are not included in such data. What has not been determined (as far as I know) is whether the generally younger cell phone owners have different political preferences; many analysts have assumed that they do, but I've not seen the data. An even bigger question is whether they will vote when the time comes.

Only 1% have landlines. Amazing.

Update Sept 27: Found an article in Salon with some data regarding cell phone usage and voting.

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