Five hours a day on Facebook: how voters are keeping up with the election

Six voters across the UK volunteered to let the research agency Revealing Reality spend three days recording what they saw on their phone screens as part of a study aimed at understanding what media people are consuming in the run-up to the election. These are their stories.

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Zoya

Age: 28
Location: Birmingham
Job: Telecoms manager
Previous vote: Labour
Probable vote: Green
Favourite news source: TikTok/Instagram

Zoya had never heard of the Israel-Palestine dispute before the 7 October attack by Hamas and Israel’s subsequent aerial bombardment and ground invasion. Since then her social media feeds have been swamped with Gaza-related content and it has become one of her top political issues. This has undermined her trust in the BBC and Sky News, which she feels are pro-Israel. She prefers Instagram, TikTok and clips from Al Jazeera as they provide her with pro-Palestine content, some of which is AI-generated.

Her phone usage stats show she consumes very little mainstream media. She doesn’t watch much TV and spends most of her evening scrolling on her phone. Zoya doesn’t visit news websites because she thinks their stories are too long and full of jargon. Instead, occasional bits of news filter through on her social media feeds among food and lifestyle material, often made by British-Pakistani content creators.

Her screen recording shows she encounters very little election-related content. She spends a lot of time looking at videos of life in Dubai and she is intrigued by a TikTok video posted by an influencer claiming that Rishi Sunak is offering people £75,000 to emigrate from the UK. (The claim is fake.)

When she does want political information, she searches TikTok for summaries of party policies. She is mainly concerned about health and crime, but is opposed to proposals to send more money to Ukraine and wants it spent in the UK instead. She said she liked Jeremy Corbyn, the former Labour leader, because he was a “good guy” who understood her community, unlike Keir Starmer, and would probably vote Green due to the party’s policy on Gaza.

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Stacey

Age: 36
Location: Clacton
Job: Full-time mother of five
Previous vote: N/A
Probable vote: Labour
Favourite news source: Facebook

Stacey is the sort of voter Nigel Farage needs to win if he is to be elected in Clacton. But her respect for the Reform leader went down after seeing claims online suggesting the Reform party leader staged being attacked by a milkshake. (These claims are false.)

She spends six hours a day on Facebook, TikTok and Instagram. She sees close to nothing about national news, but will sometimes click on a Sun or MailOnline celebrity story if it is recommended by Facebook.

Her news content mainly consists of updates posted on local Facebook groups by members of the public, but she also checks the Facebook page of her local Clacton and Frinton Gazette. If she wants to research something, she will Google it.

She lives with five children, some who have disabilities, in a two-bed house with mould. Her biggest concern is the lack of social housing in Clacton, and she is upset that when a local council development was built, homes were given to people “from out of the area”.

Her main exposure to election-related media on her phone was a paid-for Facebook advert by the local Labour party candidate. She stumbled across his video in her feed by chance, but spent several minutes watching it and reading the comments. She concluded that she might vote for him as he understood local issues and was promising more housing.

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Simon

Age: 45
Location: Dundee
Job: Technician
Previous vote: SNP
Probable vote: SNP
Favourite news source: Facebook

Simon’s phone recording showed him spending an average of five hours a day on Facebook, mainly scrolling his news feed without engaging deeply with any content.

A strong supporter of Scottish independence, he lost faith in the BBC over its perceived pro-union bias during the 2014 referendum. Despite this, he still “reluctantly” visits their news website regularly for overviews of what is going on in the world and sometimes watches BBC TV news and listens to Radio 2.

He used to be a “fervent” online poster, but no longer publicly shares much content. Instead, like other people in this study, he shares material privately in WhatsApp groups. The arrival of Euro 2024 has also seen politics content overwhelmed by Tartan army memes.

Politics content on his feed was often in the form of memes – such as a Simpsons joke mocking Starmer for repeatedly mentioning that his father was a toolmaker. Simon paused scrolling for long enough to comment: “He’s the tool.” He also hovered over a meme of Scottish Tory leader Douglas Ross being kicked by a man in a kilt and one of Farage turning into Hitler.

Simon has heard Conservative minister Grant Shapps’ warning of a Labour supermajority – which strengthened his desire to vote for the Scottish National party.

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Ava

Age: 67
Location: Lowestoft
Job: Technician
Previous vote: Conservative
Probable vote: Undecided
Favourite news source: BBC

Ava’s phone activity shows she has retreated from political news on social media. On Facebook, she has unfriended many “acquaintances” due to unpleasant political discussions during past elections. Instead, she has turned back to BBC TV news and the World Service.

She avoids engaging in political debates online so as not to offend others with her opinions or risk receiving offensive comments. She has growing disdain for online political content, saying: “If anybody were to admit to me that they made their minds up on who to vote on some Instagram posts, I’d be less than impressed.”

She is a lifelong Conservative voter but did not mind Labour until “Mr Corbyn came in”. His policies – such as support for nuclear disarmament – left her feeling “afraid”. She much prefers Starmer, but dislikes the Labour leader’s deputy, Angela Rayner.

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Finley

Age: 19
Location: Buckinghamshire
Job: Student
Previous vote: N/A
Probable vote: Liberal Democrat
Favourite news source: X/YouTube

Finley is an avid gamer and first-time voter who has never had any relationship with mainstream news outlets. Instead, he relies on TikTok, X and Instagram – but he will turn to YouTube for lengthy explainers on complicated topics.

Many of his opinions are formed by watching reaction videos. He won’t read traditional news stories, but will seek out extreme viewpoints in order to comprehend political arguments, saying: “I suppose I’d be more interested in people’s reactions than, you know, the thing itself.”

His Instagram feed is full of Gaza content, but his main concern in this election is transgender rights. He was prompted to research party manifestos after stumbling across a decade-old video on TikTok explaining elections by the comedian Jay Foreman. Finley was deeply concerned about the government’s temporary ban on puberty blockers, although he did not know which party introduced it.

He has never watched linear TV and does not passively consume broadcast news. Instead, he relaxes by flicking through TikTok videos at speed, usually giving them a fraction of a second of his attention. A few of Labour’s in-house TikTok posts made their way into his feed, but he thought many of them were “a bit annoying” and trying too hard.

He knew Farage, but only as a meme, rather than a politician, largely because gamers used the Cameo app to pay the Reform leader to say silly things. He also learned about Sunak leaving the D-day commemorations early only after seeing a reaction video by the YouTuber Niko Omilana.

He trusts the BBC News brand, but never actively consumes any of its content. He also could not understand why older people posted political content under their own names on social media.

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Matthew

Age: 60
Location: Wigan
Job: Retired
Previous vote: Conservative
Probable vote: Labour
Favourite news source: BBC News

A self-described creature of habit, Matthew makes a point of sitting down in front of the TV for the evening news at 10pm. He also regularly checks the BBC News app during the day, although he rarely reads beyond the headlines and the first few paragraphs of any story. If there’s something he’s really interested in, then he’ll share a link in a WhatsApp group for friends or ex-colleagues – and he laughed at memes of Sunak portrayed as a Dickensian child asking for “more Sky TV”.

He reads a lot of business news from mainstream news outlets through the Stocks app on his iPhone, even though he’s not entirely sure why he sees it. “If it’s ended up in the Apple app, you broadly think it’s probably going to be correct … If it’s on there, I think it’s trustworthy,” he said.

He liked Tony Blair, voted Remain, but strongly disliked Corbyn. He is now considering voting Labour, in part because the shadow chancellor, Rachel Reeves, worked at the Bank of England and he feels the country is ready for change. He does not seem engaged by culture war topics: “I mean, I hear this word ‘woke’, which, I mean, I don’t even understand it, I don’t even know what it actually means.”