The Kids Are Online: Teen Social Media Use, Civic Engagement, and Affective Polarization

Abstract

Teen users outpace adults in social media use across several platforms. Though much scholarship has considered the negative effects of social media use on teen well-being, this study considers how participation on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok is influencing teens’ political interests and behaviors. Compared to traditional resources, we find that social media use across these platforms positively correlated with political interest and civic online and offline engagement, while Twitter and Facebook use had positive relationships with affective polarization. TikTok and Instagram each correlated with higher levels of interest and civic engagement, and the platforms had no relationship with polarization. We discuss these implications and what they mean for political participation among teens online.