2020 Opinion Survey

One of the few things I think we can all agree on is that someday those who come after us will look back on this time with a great deal of fascination. There will be chapters in history books—and entire college courses—that begin with March 2020 as the world begins to shut down.

I was curious what my friends and family think about some of the things taking place right now, but I am not one to encourage a bunch of opinion posting and debating on Facebook. I’m a lover not a fighter. I also enjoy creating surveys. To get some answers, I posted a link to a survey hoping a few folks would answer. I got more than 360 responses, which is way more than I expected. Here’s a look at who took the survey and the answers they gave.

Demographics

First, my Facebook page is the only place I promoted this, so this is a look at the opinions of friends of mine who are on that social network, who were served up my post by the great and mighty Facebook algorithm and who were willing to take a random survey.

Politically and socially from a scale of 1 (conservative) to 5 (liberal), the respondents averaged a 3.5.

66% identified as “proud southerners” (like me) while another 9% were born in the south but have moved away and no longer identify as a southerner. 12% have joined us here in the south and now identify as a southerner, but 13% never have been and never will be. It was pointed out to me that it is possible to be a southerner without being a “Proud Southerner.” My bias has revealed itself.

96% were White, 2% were Black, 1% were Hispanic or Latino and 1% were Asian/Pacific Islander.

Interestingly, where the respondents lived was much more evenly spread than I expected with 43% rural, 25% urban and 32% suburban.

60% claimed to be a person of religious faith who is a member of a house of worship and attends with frequency while 29% claimed so be a person of religious faith but not a member of a house of worship. 12% claimed to not be a person of religious faith.

COVID-19

I personally wear a mask when I go out in public, but I’ve seen the “freak outs” on social media from people not wanting to wear a mask, so I was curious about this one . 22% of the respondents used the word “smart” while 11% used the word “cautious” to describe mask wearing. Other positive words mentioned—but at a lower frequency—included considerate, responsible, caring and others like that. Of course, as we all know, not everyone shares that opinion. However, those who shared a negative opinion on this survey were by far in the minority among those who answered. Way down the list appears the words sheep, followers and naive, but surprisingly, negative words were less than 3% in total.

I am not alone in limiting where I go and wearing a mask. In this survey, 34% only go where they MUST go, and they choose to wear a mask. 38% go where they WANT to go, but also choose to wear a mask. 5% go where they want and don’t go if a mask is required. The other 23% go where they want and wear a mask if it is required.

As a whole, people were not as worried about COVID-19’s impact on their health at the beginning of the pandemic as they are now. The level of worry in March was a little over 3 out of 5, while now the average is 5. Interestingly, on the whole, people were slightly more worried about their economic rather than physical health at the beginning, but more worried about physical than economic health now.

75% personally know someone who has tested positive for COVID-19.

Confederate Statues

Looking at another hot button topic next—Confederate statues.

I was a little surprised by this one. Only 9% said they believe the statues are not racist and should be left alone, while only 4% wanted them destroyed. 43% want them left where they are and used to teach about the history of race in America while the other 43% want them moved elsewhere and used to teach about the history of race in America.

News Source

Curious what people would select if they could only have one news source? I am someone who has been fortunate to have gotten to know many journalists both personally and professionally. At the Newseum, I was privileged to get to work with many talented pros with a passion for journalism, and we spent a lot of our time trying to get people to understand fake news vs. good, solid journalism, which we need as much of as possible. Check out these media literacy resources from NewseumEd and you’ll see what I mean.

That said, of the 356 who answered this question with one specific news source, 75 listed Fox News while 25 listed CNN. NPR was listed by 23, PBS by 16 and BBC by 13. ABC, CBS and NBC all got a few shoutouts and then there were others like Drudge, the Washington Post, Twitter, Facebook and the AP that got a few mentions. Then, there were a variety of single sources. Sadly, 20 people said they don’t trust or regularly watch any news source.

Politics

This next election is going to be divisive, so buckle up if you aren’t already. Of those who answered this survey, 44% said they would vote for Trump while 37% said they would vote for Biden. A large number, 15%, have still not decided or will vote for someone else. 4% are planning not to vote.

I am currently optimistic about…

These are tough times. 17 people looked at that question and couldn’t come up with something to be optimistic about so they skipped it. Clearly, a lot of people are turning to their faith during this time based on the responses, and family was important. Some were optimistic about Trump winning the election, while others were optimistic about Biden winning. Of course, many people noted they were optimistic about the end of the pandemic. Here’s a very random snapshot of just some of the answers.

One thing I know for certain. No matter who you vote for, what news you watch, whether you go to church or choose not to or what you think needs to be done with statues, aren’t we lucky to live in a country where we have so much freedom?

Thanks to everyone who took a minute to fill out the survey. Now I’m going to return to minding my own business.

You can find more about my family lines and others at HaywoodCountyLine.com or read more blog posts about the history of West Tennessee on my blog page.