Hi, this is Joe Drymala, guest posting - I run a firm called Share Of Voice that explores online conversations on behalf of political and advocacy campaigns. I’m excited to take the helm of Insights by Infegy today on behalf of my favorite social listening tool!
In my work, one of the online conversations I monitor for almost every client of mine is about the cost of living. That is, tracking how people are discussing how expensive basic necessities have gotten.
As you might imagine, there’s a lot out there to explore. Everything costs a lot more now than it did as recently as five years ago, and people are pretty darn vocal about it online. Take a look at the entire conversation since 2020:
Figure 1: Cost of living conversations, (November 14, 2020 - November 13, 2025); Infegy Social Dataset.
A big dataset like this can be a real beast to try and understand, so I tend to group this conversation into several major categories. Since 2022, there have been four big ones that overshadowed all the others: housing, health care, groceries, and gas prices.
These categories also rise and fall in proportion to one another. For example, during the early post-pandemic period, gas prices were the biggest cost category mentioned in the US:
By 2023, gas had become less of an issue, and housing surged.
In 2024, groceries took the lead from around August onward.
In 2025, though, I began to notice something new. Another type of cost was being mentioned more and more, and deserved its own separate category: namely, electric bills.
In 2025, electricity surged (pun intended, sorry) past health care and gas to become the Number 3 cost category:
Figure 5: Cost of living conversations - top 5 topics, (November 14, 2024 - November 13, 2025); Infegy Social Dataset.
This is after the perennial categories of Groceries and Housing. It even knocks Gas right out of the top 4.
Here’s what the category looks like all by itself - the growth is fairly dramatic:
Figure 6: Cost of living conversations - electricity, (November 14, 2024 - November 13, 2025); Infegy Social Dataset.
This chart doesn’t just show a spike in conversation, but an overall rise in how often the topic is mentioned in all cost conversations. A real trend had started in July 2025.
As you can see in Figure 7, the conversations around electricity are strongly negative and focus heavily on the ability to pay and prices, which are common topics.
Figure 7: Word cloud of electricity cost of living conversations, (November 14, 2024 - November 13, 2025); Infegy Social Dataset.
There’s another interesting aspect here - the growing awareness of the role of AI data centers in contributing to electricity costs. You can see these in the topic word cloud above. This is a very new conversation - awareness really didn’t start to emerge until around June, and really picked up toward the end of July:
Figure 8: AI Data Center Conversations, (January 1, 2025 - November 11, 2025); Infegy Social Dataset.
Over the past two months, more than 1 in every 8 posts mentioning electricity costs specifically singled out AI data centers:
Figure 9: Electricity Costs + AI Data Center Conversations vs. All Posts in the Electricity Cost Conversation, (September 9, 2025 - November 13, 2025); Infegy Social Dataset.
This is a quickly evolving conversation, and it will certainly keep changing in the coming months and years, but it’s a great example of how social listening can track quickly moving conversations and trends in public discourse, virtually in real time.
The rapid rise of electricity costs as a top-3 cost-of-living concern, surpassing even gas prices, demonstrates just how quickly public discourse can shift. What makes this trend especially significant is the speed at which it emerged and the public's growing awareness of AI data centers as a contributing factor. For political organizations and advocacy campaigns, staying on top of these evolving conversations isn't optional; it's essential for remaining relevant and responsive to voters' real concerns. When a cost category can go from background noise to a major issue in just a few months, campaigns that aren't actively monitoring these shifts risk crafting messages around yesterday's problems while missing today's pressing issues. Social listening tools like Infegy Starscape don't just help you understand what people are talking about—they help you spot emerging trends before they become tomorrow's headlines, giving communicators the ability to stay ahead of the conversation rather than reacting to it.
1. Electricity costs emerged as the #3 cost-of-living concern in 2025. Surpassing both healthcare and gas prices. Electricity bills now trail only housing and groceries in cost-of-living conversations. This dramatic shift occurred primarily over the past several months.
2. AI data centers are becoming part of the cost conversation. More than 1 in 8 posts about electricity costs now specifically mention AI data centers as a contributing factor, representing a new and rapidly growing dimension of public awareness that barely existed before June 2025.
3. Cost-of-living priorities shift faster than you think. The dominant cost concerns can change dramatically within months. Gas prices led in 2022, housing surged in 2023, groceries dominated in 2024, and electricity has now claimed the #3 spot in 2025. Political organizations must actively monitor these conversations in real time to stay relevant and responsive to voters' current concerns.
This insight is provided by Joe Drymala of Share of Voice.
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