Social Media and Political Engagement

According to a report (PDF), those who participate in political activities online are from higher socioeconomic status. This is also the case with political participation generally. The Pew study suggests that new forms of civic engagement through social media services may change this.

Younger Internet users are more interesting in social media than older Internet users, and 34% of young Internet users use social networking sites for political activities, making up 72% of political activities on social networking sites. The socioeconomic status gap amongst political social networking site users is less pronounced than in offline political activities.