Authors:

Percy Conrad

Date Created:

Not specified

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About Paper:

Examining the sociopolitical life of college students online Social networking applications - like Instagram or Twitter - have quickly established a dominant presence in the lives of kids and teenagers since their rise twenty years ago. According to the Pew Research Center (2025), 76% of people ages 18-29 get at least some of their news from social media, yet few psychological 128 UNIVERSITY OF OREGON • 2026 UNDERGRADUATE RESEARCH SYMPOSIUM TABLE OF CONTENTS studies have been conducted about the content youth engage with on these platforms. This project used a multi-step inductive coding process on semi-structured interviews about civic engagement to learn more about the sociopolitical content youth engage with on social media. Participants included N = 32 youth ages 15-24 (M = 20. 8, SD = 1. 91). Interviews were conducted in 2021 and participants were recruited via messaging board at a large, urban state school in Northern California. The coding process included analyzing N = 20 influencers and their social media posts in 2021 for content related to US political figures, government response to the COVID-19 pandemic, and sociopolitical identities. The depth and partisanship of content was also measured. This study furthers the understanding of the sociopolitical content youth are exposed to online.

Source:

University of Oregon / 2026

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Co-authors:

Percy Conrad