Talking about Politics on Social Media?: Opinions of Emerging Adults

Abstract

News stories say the Internet is filled with increasingly polarizing, politically strident speech. Looking beyond the headlines, this study investigates experiences of non-activist, emerging adults at a small college, to see in what ways their everyday social media communications reflect these conflict-oriented, argumentative extremes, and/or if they have internalized a version of the “spiral of silence.” Regarding active media engagement, this project describes how social media is used by a selected group of emerging adults and investigates the reasons these people give when explaining the risks they perceive are related to political communication on social media. Fifteen structured interviews from 2016, fifteen from 2020 and twenty from 2024 are considered qualitatively, with research team reviewers clustering responses and highlighting themes, which collectively present a consistent pattern of media sensibilities. Explaining decisions regarding online engagement with political topics, participants suggest that rather than expressing strong opinions, they desire cautious speech and conflict avoidance. Some risks related to speaking up are also implied. For the studied emerging adults, fitting-in and maintaining family and community connection through communication are the preferred functions for social media