Virgin introduces text message polling

Virgin Mobile to the list. They are offering a text message polling service for their subscribers, most of whom are under the age of 25. And wouldn’t you know, they favor Barack Obama over John McCain. We’ll leave the politics right there, because lord knows we don’t want someone Googling, finding this post, and posting some long diatribe that has nothing to do with cellular (happened the other day on another topic; not pretty).

“As texting continues to grow into a primary form of personal communication, it’s critical to tap into this channel for insights on the major issues of our day,” said Bob Stohrer, Chief Marketing Officer for Virgin Mobile USA. “The tremendous response we received from over 20,000 of our customers is a sign that people will make their voices heard when they are reached, through the right channels, with questions that have substance and meaning. Our ongoing commitment to give a voice to our customers is aligned with our overall goal of gaining real-time insights and continuing to grow our relationship with wireless consumers.”

While Stohrer might be overstating the fact, it’s still good to see young people interested in the future of our country. A larger voter turnout is never bad for an election, especially the presidential election. However, this might not indicate an increase in voter turnout this November. It seems that younger people don’t want to go to the polls. They’d rather text their vote from wherever they are. Which is silly (sorry, it is), because it’s never going to happen, not in any foreseeable future, at least. About 55 percent of respondents said that they would be more likely to vote if they could by text message. I’m sorry, and people are going to disagree with me, but that speaks to an enormous amount of laziness. Either that, or an indicator that we should make Election Day a national holiday. The full results of the Virgin survey can be found here.]]>