The effects of social media on the political participation behaviour: A study on the generations of X, Y and Z

Developments in communication technologies and the emergence of social media allowed many areas to change and develop. Politics, which is obliged to use mass communication technologies actively, is one of the areas affected by these developments. The possibilities offered by social media to its users make it a political participation tool on its own. Particularly, the fact that social media provides ease of organization for individuals and the fact that the Z generation, the oldest of whom is 22 years old and born into social media, has started to appear in the political arena, placed social media in an important position in terms of politics and politicians. Political parties and politicians are actively trying to use social media in order to reach the Z generation, who are considered apolitical. In the light of all these developments, this study was carried out to investigate the effects of social media on political participation behavior. The main question of the research is whether the effects of social media on political participation behavior vary according to different generations. In this direction, a quantitative field study was carried out using the convenience sampling, 600 participants from X, Y and Z generations were included in the study. According to the findings of the research, it was concluded that the effect of social media on political participation behavior differs according to generations. While social media affects the political participation behavior of the Z generation at a moderate level, it affects the political participation behavior of the X and Y generations at a low level.