The Impact of Social Media on the Politics of High Schoolers in Comparison to Socioeconomic Factors

This study aims to determine the extent to which social media impacts political views of high schoolers, in comparison to factors like race, gender, socioeconomic status, and age. Which factor carries a greater weight in determining the political views of the teenagers of today? Does the variation of these dynamics across groups demonstrate disparities in access to information and political participation? Does social media usage lead to teenagers feeling more confident or informed of their political decisions or views? Our research concludes that it seems that racial and socioeconomic factors had the most impact on determining the political views of students, and age and gender to a lesser extent, as compared to social media usage. Furthermore, social media usage did not necessarily impact the confidence level of students while race/ethnicity had a greater impact.