Effects of Social Media on Civil and Political Participation and a Field of Survey over on Facebook

Abstract

Turkish youth is characterized with low level of political participation. Several surveys showed that less than 10 percent of Turkish youth are active in political parties and civil society organizations. There are cultural and behavioral reasons of this inertia. Meanwhile, Facebook, the most important social network site is widely used in Turkey and Turkish users form the 6th biggest population in Facebook but level of political participation in Facebook is unknown. By using data collected from 563 university students, this paper showed that there different dimensions of political participation in Facebook and level of activity in these dimensions is dependent on several factors. Demographic factors are important in active participation, meanwhile participation through direct or indirect expression are affected by Facebook usage patterns of respondent as well as real life political activities and perceptions.