Social Media and Political Engagement Across Generations in 2020

Abstract

Social media and offline political participation have a complicated relationship. There is discrepancy between the size of social media’s effects, if any. The year 2020 brought unprecedented events, such as a global pandemic and national civil unrest surrounding race and the police. During these events, life for many Americans moved online, and they turned to social media for information and to pass the time. Americans of all ages had to become acclimated to a web-based environment. This research is focused on looking further into the possible correlation between social media and voting through a generational lens in the context of the events of 2020. It seeks to answer, 1) how did the coronavirus and national civil unrest affect the navigation and use of social media across generations? 2) How did the change in social media use of voters in different generations impact understanding of Covid? Of social unrest surrounding race and the police? And 3) is increased social media use (across platforms and time spent on social media) correlated with voting. Data was collected from respondents who partook in the national CCES online survey through YouGov. Through this data, there was no correlation between social media and voting discovered. There were, however, findings regarding to the correlation of generation and social media use, the use of social media as an information source between generations, and social media’s correlation with political efficacy.