Social Media and Participation in Different Socio-political Contexts: Cases of Estonia and Finland

Abstract

Today’s young people are engaging in politicized activities and are more attuned to the concerns of their own generation, as opposed to issues more relevant to their parents. Youth political activism takes a less overt and more individualized approach, and young people today are enthusiastic about online participation and engaging in it in different ways. This article adds to the growing discussion that focuses on connections between social media use and non-institutional youth political participation. The article focuses on the meaning that young people attribute to their own social media participation in two countries—Estonia and Finland—taking into account the impact of the wider social context. The empirical part of the study relies on material collected within the framework of the large-scale European project MYPLACE. The in-depth micro-level analysis is primary based on interviews with young people from Estonia and Finland, contextualized by diverse survey data.