Not Your Parents' Politics - Understanding Young People's Political Expression on Social Media

Social media has become a key space for young people to experiment with their political voice and to hone it through interaction with others. However, authors Neta Kligler-Vilenchik and Ioana Literat argue that in order to seriously consider social media as a space for youth political expression, we need to put aside conventional expectations about the forms that political expression should take. According to longstanding criteria for evaluating good citizens, political expression should be serious, focused on facts and rationality, and detached and objective. By contrast, the authors uncover political expression that is humoristic or cynical, colorful, and frequently infused with popular culture references. It is deeply emotional and often profoundly personal. If we look at this political speech through traditional lenses, we may not only miss it, but misunderstand young people's relationship to politics. Grounded in empirical research on three case studies of youth political expressi