INFLUENCE OF SOCIAL MEDIA ON YOUTH PARTICIPATION IN POLITICS IN NIGERIA: A CASE OF THE 2015/2019 GENERAL ELECTIONS

Abstract

The 2015 and 2019 general elections in Nigeria marked a turning point in the use of social media for awareness, campaigns, discourse and even outright posting of election results. In lieu of this, this study investigated the influence of social media on youth participation in Nigerian politics and its impact on the outcome of the last two general elections in Nigeria. The survey research design was used for this study with questionnaire as data gathering instrument. The research population comprised of youth drawn from the major cities in Western Nigeria. The data collected was analyzed using simple percentage and differential statistics. It was revealed from the study’s findings that 88.8% of the respondents were aware of social networking sites (SNS). While 79.8% were using social networking sites. The study also found that majority of the respondents were actively spending most of their time in online political discussions and in real life political issues with 59.3% of them voting the 2015 and 2019 general elections. The finding therefore showed a positive relationship between social media use and real life political participation by youths.