The Effect of the Internet and Social Media on Youth’s Political Interests and Voting Intentions

Abstract

This paper estimates the impact of internet and social media activities on youth’s political and federal election interests using panel data from 2004 and 2008 Canadian Election Studies. OLS regression results suggest that general use of internet has been significantly increasing for the youth. I provide suggestive evidence that may be linked to the observed increase in the youth and adults’ political and federal election interests compared to seniors.