Political and Social Participation of Younger Generation as Social Media Users in Indonesia

Abstract

Among social media users, the younger generation is the group that uses social media the most. There is an assumption that young people who are infatuated with social media tend to be more absorbed in themselves, being anti-social because they are less concerned with the surrounding social environment. They especially ignore political issues. Various data showed that Indonesia is one of the most active countries in the world using social media. Beginner voters are one of the important groups in each election. They are young people aged between 17 and 22 years. This study tries to see the political participation of social media users as beginner voters. This study used a survey method, and respondents were selected purposively. The results showed that nearly 80 percent of respondents expressed a great desire to vote in the 2019 Presidential Election. This shows that the level of political participation among beginner voters is high. However, the political participation of the majority of respondents was only at the lightest level, just talking about political issues with friends or colleagues as part of talking to spend time. Other campaigns by beginner voters such as promoting candidates or political parties, helping political parties' campaigns or making contributions to political parties are relatively low or not intensive.