Is the political debate in danger? : A qualitative study regarding young adults attitudes about social media within the political debate

We can see today that young adults use social media for mostly entertainment purposes. Because of this the political subjects gets overshadowed within social media. This is a problem both because young adults hold the majority of the consumption on social media and because young adults can be seen as the future. Therefore, it’s important to get the young adults more active in political subjects on social media. Former studies show that political subjects can be sensitive for young adults to talk about and this shows that this group of people are afraid of being in a minority position if they voice their political opinion. Furthermore, former studies show that young adults do not feel an obligation as a citizen compared to earlier generations. This study is conducted on ten young adults aged between 18-25, using a qualitative method with semi-structured interviews. The results from this study showed us that the young adults have a good attitude towards social media as a tool for political purposes. Even if they had a positive attitude, they also thought that it had to be used in the right way in order to make use of it.