DYLAN MITCHELL

Abstract: In the United States, researchers agree that political polarization has been widening. A potential source of this polarization is the rise of social media sites. This study seeks to determine whether correlations exist between social media use habits and political polarization among high school students. An online survey was distributed to American high school students with 200 respondents from across the country and across grade levels. The results helped to confirm the presumption in the field that social media is correlated with political polarization, showing a strong link between higher social media engagement and higher levels of polarization as well as more negative feelings toward voters in the opposite party. These results demonstrate the importance of focusing on the non-voting age, high school demographic in political science research.

Keywords: political science, affective political polarization, social media, high schoolers