How Gen Z perceives political engagement in networked publics

• In Event: Open Refereed Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable (90 minute): Table 10: Digital Life, Media, and Algorithms

Abstract

In the lead-up to the 2024 U.S. General Election, the role of social media in shaping political engagement and narrative formation garnered significant attention from researchers, media, and technology industry stakeholders. While existing studies have examined social media's impact on political action, there is a paucity of research focusing on young adults' perceptions of its influence on their own and others' political engagement.

Using qualitative and quantitative data in the battleground state of Arizona in the 30 days before the 2024 presidential election, this study investigates how young adults perceive social media's role in their own and others' political engagement. We conducted 203 semi-structured interviews with individuals aged 19 to 34 in Arizona during the period leading up to the 2024 General Election.

Our preliminary findings indicate that young adults themselves do not see social media as particularly influential in their own political engagement, while paradoxically expressing that social media has an outsized impact on others’ political engagement. These results suggest that our current understanding of social media’s impacts on young adult political behavior may be more nuanced and conditional, with young adults negating the impact of social media on themselves but attributing its impact as significant amongst others. This adds to the overall argument that the new era of social media functions not merely as a tool for political engagement but as a distinct discursive

Authors

• Aaron Andrew-Baron Thompson, Arizona State University-Tempe

• Sydney O Glass, Arizona State University