ABSTRACT
The popularity of social network sites as a venue for sociability among young people has brought about renewed optimism for the role of online media in political engagement. A crucial task for the study of politics and social media is therefore to explore the sociological possibilities for political interaction within the new online social settings where youth interact. This chapter shows that use of Facebook and other social network sites (SNS) can contribute to higher levels of social capital and rates of civic engagement, and can enable incidental exposure to diverse news and political content. In the run-up to the 2012 US elections, 85 percent of young SNS users posted little or no political content. Personal broadcasts on SNS offer challenges to common strategies of self-presentation. A great deal more research is needed to investigate how the social pressures are acting to shape and possibly narrow the range of political discourse that flows through Facebook and other SNS.
