A recent study conducted by a University of Wisconsin-Madison professor, along with professors and researchers from both England and Australia, examines the potential of social media to pique the Millennial generation’s interest in politics.

Do social media outlets such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube motivate young people to be more active in their community and political spheres? Surveys and focus groups were used extensively on their 18- to 29-year-old subjects to determine results.

Those who conducted the study conclude that social media is not detrimental to political engagement, but actually has a positive effect on involvement:

We wanted to take a broad look at social media use and engagement in these three different countries and see what the relationship was, and we found on the whole that it’s a positive relationship… The more people use this technology, the more likely they are to be engaged. Most people have a moderate-to-low interest in politics, but know a few people who are more interested. [For Millennials] it only takes a few to expose the others to political information and ideas. This is powerfully illustrated in some of our focus group analysis.

Find out more here: “Paul Fanlund: Among the young, social media piques interest in politics.”