ABSTRACT
This chapter begins with an overview of political consumption and the ways it represents an increasingly popular form of alternative political engagement, particularly among young voters. It then explores how young voters think of their consumption choices in political terms and the various socializing agents that influenced them. Although past research indicates political consumption correlates highly with other forms of political engagement, my data suggest young voters themselves do not think of their marketplace behaviors in such explicitly distinct, political terms. In an effort to clarify this disconnect, it then focuses on survey data to analyze the various agents that socialize young people into politics, and demonstrate that political consumption is motivated by different factors than are conventional forms of civic and political engagement. The chapter then highlights the important differences between conventional political participation and nontraditional forms of engagement.
