It's Complicated: Facebook Users' Political Participation in the 2008 Election

TLDR

In the 2008 U.S. presidential election, social network sites such as Facebook enabled users to share political beliefs, support candidates, and discuss political issues. The study investigates whether political activities on Facebook influence political participation among young voters, who are traditionally viewed as apathetic, and whether such activities amount to meaningful engagement or merely slacktivism. Students’ perceptions of the appropriateness of Facebook political activity, the specific activities they performed, and the activities they observed among friends were examined.

Abstract

In the 2008 U.S. presidential election, social network sites such as Facebook allowed users to share their political beliefs, support specific candidates, and interact with others on political issues. But do political activities on Facebook affect political participation among young voters, a group traditionally perceived as apathetic in regard to civic engagement? Or do these activities represent another example of feel-good participation that has little real-world impact, a concept often referred to as "slacktivism"? Results from a survey of undergraduate students (N = 683) at a large public university in the Midwestern United States conducted in the month prior to the election found that students tend to engage in lightweight political participation both on Facebook and in other venues. Furthermore, two OLS regressions found that political activity on Facebook (e.g., posting a politically oriented status update, becoming a "fan" of a candidate) is a significant predictor of other forms of political participation (e.g., volunteering for an organizing, signing a paper or online petition), and that a number of factors--including intensity of Facebook use and the political activity users see their friends performing on the site--predict political activity on Facebook. Students' perceptions regarding the appropriateness of political activity on Facebook, as well as the specific kinds of political activities they engaged in and witnessed within the site, were also explored.