The implications of social media usage on voting behaviorsand decisions: A study on first-time voters in Turkey

In the 21st century, social media has become a crucial part of our everyday lives. All sectors and fields have become dependent on it, including entertainment, business, education, and politics. Social media has been a source of information and interaction, and political parties make use of social media to deliver their ideas or future projects to win the hearts and minds of the voters during electoral campaigns. Therefore, digital natives started discovering and understanding politics through their screens. This thesis research focuses on how first-time voters in Turkey interact and behave on social media regarding voting. Its aim is to study the implications of social media usage on first-time voters' political knowledge, political participation, and voting behavior. A comprehensive survey was developed as a means to implement the quantitative research approach. The needed data was gathered via the survey and analyzed through SPSS in order to address the research questions and evaluate the hypotheses. The results generally indicate that social media usage among first-time voters in Turkey has a significant positive relationship with their political knowledge and participation, and eventually their voting behavior.