Last night, I got a phone call around 7:30pm. On my landline. [Please refrain from asking why I am the only person under 30 who has a landline.] I don’t often answer phone calls from numbers that I don’t recognize, and my parents are about the only ones who have my landline number, but I was worried that they got stranded for some reason in some yet unknown part of the northeast and they didn’t have cell phone service and had to call using the ancient collect call method from a pay phone, so I answered the phone call. Hello? An automated voice spoke to me, explaining that this call was a survey, conducted by one of the local news channels. I got pretty excited because I love giving out my opinion, in case you couldn’t tell. But then they asked for the youngest male over the age of 18 in the household. Cue droopy face. I pressed the number to say there wasn’t a male available, and then gasp! They asked for the youngest female over the age of 18 in the household. Cue embarrassingly uncontrollable grin. Does anyone else get this excited about this kind of thing? Anyhow, they asked me all about my opinion of Barack Obama and the current state and national governments, about what issues are most important to me, and who I would be likely to vote for in this year’s senate election in my state. Cool beans. Now my opinion has been heard. But I was thinking, this survey is way flawed. First, they are calling landlines, which as I mentioned, I am the only person under the age of 30 who has one, so they are getting a pretty inaccurate sample of the population. Second, they are asking the person who answered to be truthful about whether or not they are a boy or girl and whether or not they are actually the targeted person (ie. the youngest over 18). Third, if there had been a male in my household, would they still have asked for my opinion after getting the male’s opinion? Or do they only ask for females in case of no male present? No matter which is the case, this is flawed. If they only get the males if one is present, well then poo on them. And if they get both, then some households are unfairly represented by two voices instead of just one. So if there is one male and one female in the household, both could get a voice. But if there is only one female or even ten females in the household, they only get one voice. Fourth, why ask for the youngest person over 18? I’m just confused about that.
It’s just odd to me that the survey is so flawed because they put these numbers on the news, and a lot of people base their opinions off these numbers. And these opinions that people have based on flawed numbers can really change things when these people go out to vote. Not that I have a feasible solution right at this moment, but something really needs to be changed to make things more accurate. It also makes me wonder what other things the news media manages to portray in an unfair light.
Also, on a related unrelated note, I voted early this weekend. I didn’t have to wait in line. ‘Twas rad and very American.
