ABSTRACT
Compared to traditional media, social media possess the opportunity to deliver political content in a more relevant, diverse, and direct way, which constitutes an alternative route for the different generations to encounter political information. This chapter shows how exposure to political content on social media has different effects on each generation’s political involvement. It also shows how social media possess the potential for affecting political involvement in different ways for each of different generations. The chapter explores the levels of political engagement and political participation in society and how political social media exposure may be driving these key democratic variables. The different features of social media platforms can have important implications for political media exposure and its effects on engagement and participation. Political social media exposure contributes to how strongly people are engaged in politics. Across generations, the strongest relation is found between political social media exposure and political interest, whereas political knowledge and internal political efficacy are less affected.
