Teens and young adults whose Internet activities center on their hobbies or interests are more likely to volunteer than those who go online primarily for political-driven issues, according to the UC Irvine Participatory Politics.
Researchers examined three main drivers to the Internet — politics, interest, and social — to measure the connection between political engagement online and campaign participation and political expression. It finds:
• There’s no correlation between viewing political content online and actually voting.
• Those who are involved in hobby-based online activities are more likely than those who se the Internet to primarily keep in touch with friends to volunteer or engage in political activities offline.
• Politically-infused email and messages sent by friends is modestly connected to a bump in voting. [Online]
Sources: Mills College, Joseph Kahne, study author, 500 MacArthur Blvd., Oakland, CA 94613; 510-430-2255; jkahne@mills.edu. Also, College of Charleston, Nam-Jin Lee, leen@cofc.edu. University of California, Santa Barbara, Jessica Timpany Feezell, jtfeezell@polsci.ucsb.edu
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