Internet and political socialization. Consequences in youth participation

Abstract

One of the least explored consequences of the Internet is the political socialization of young people, who were born and raised with this technology and are their most prevalent users. To explore this issue we developed a theoretical frame that explains the potential of the Internet to act as a devise of political socialization, both as a traditional agency and as a place for young subcultures to rise. From the National Youth Survey conducted in Mexico in 2010 and 2012, we took a cohort of young, middle class sample, with access to this technology during their upbringing, and analyzed if their socialization process, intertwined with the Internet, has a consequence in terms of political participation, in comparison to other media and social agents. We found that there is indeed a relationship between the hard use of the Internet and political participation, but it is not significant. We conclude that at least in the dimension of participation, the presence of the Internet in young people´s socialization is not relevant, perhaps because of poor levels of political sophistication among that group.