Talking about Politics on Social Media?: Opinions of Emerging Adults

Authors

Barbara Ruth Burke, University of Minnesota Morris, USAFollow

Abstract

News stories say the Internet is filled with increasingly polarizing, politically strident speech. Looking beyond the headlines, this study investigates experiences of non-activist, emerging adults at a small college, to see in what ways their everyday social media communications reflect these conflict-oriented, argumentative extremes, and/or if they have internalized a version of the “spiral of silence.” Regarding active media engagement, this project describes how social media is used by a selected group of emerging adults and investigates the reasons these people give when explaining the risks they perceive are related to political communication on social media. Fifteen structured interviews from 2016, fifteen from 2020 and twenty from 2024 are considered qualitatively, with research team reviewers clustering responses and highlighting themes, which collectively present a consistent pattern of media sensibilities. Explaining decisions regarding online engagement with political topics, participants suggest that rather than expressing strong opinions, they desire cautious speech and conflict avoidance. Some risks related to speaking up are also implied. For the studied emerging adults, fitting-in and maintaining family and community connection through communication are the preferred functions for social media.

Keywords

political social media, emerging adults, conflict-avoidance, structured interviews, thematic analysis

Author Bio(s)

Barbara Ruth Burke (Ph.D. Purdue University, https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9906-448X) is an Associate Professor in the discipline of Communication, Media, and Rhetoric at the University of Minnesota Morris. Her research explores forms of online community building, and the reciprocal nature of media messages and ideas about identity. Please direct correspondence to burkebr@morris.umn.edu

Publication Date

5-31-2025

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 4.0 International License.

DOI

10.46743/2160-3715/2025.6220

Recommended APA Citation

Burke, B. R. (2025). Talking about politics on social media? Opinions of emerging adults. The Qualitative Report, 30(5), 3619-3639. https://doi.org/10.46743/2160-3715/2025.6220

ORCID ID

0000-0002-9906-448X