Relationship Between Social Media And Political Engagement

Social media has become a vital part of everyday life in the United States. However, it is no longer solely a form of communicating with friends and family. Social media has become a platform for sharing news, ideas, and information, especially that of politics during the most recent election and beyond. Prior to the beginning of social media, the idea that people could communicate with others all around the world whom they have never met before was nearly impossible. Social media is thought to have begun in 1973 with the Bulletin Board System, or BBS, which was an online meeting place where people could share files, download games, and post messages for other online users (Shah, 2018). As time progressed, more social media sites began to

As age groups increase, the percentage of participation decreases which demonstrates the importance of exploring this relationship specifically in young adults. Because these studies use young adults, mainly college students, as participants, while these results may demonstrate a positive relationship between social media use and political engagement, it is important to keep in mind that young adults are the greatest users of social media so these results may not be generalizable to the rest of the population. Researchers who collected a random web survey of college students in Texas were able to draw upon the responses that there was a positive relationship between Facebook use and social trust, civic engagement, and political participation (Bode, 2012). It was noted that the association was small, so it could be beneficial to do further research on how to use social media to improve disengagement from civic duty and democracy in young

Vlogs are described as “short, online videos that are commonly filmed at home, address many topics, and often feature an individual monologue to the camera” (Snelson, 2015). The researchers examined 18 different YouTube channels of young adults whose videos were social change oriented in order to better understand their online political engagement. The purpose of the study was to show that some young people do value political engagement and while they may not partake in political activities in a more traditional sense, they do so through creating politically oriented videos online. The study findings did support this idea and showed that rather than social media being a place for young adults to disengage and isolate themselves, it can be a place of inclusion, and political and civic