Youth, Social Media, and Political Participation: A Study on Digital Citizenship and New Forms of Collective Action
Keywords:
Youth participation, social media, digital citizenship, political engagement, collective action, online activism, Gwalior, digital democracyAbstract
The present study explores the relationship between youth, social media, and political participation in the context of digital citizenship and emerging forms of collective action in Gwalior, India. With the rapid expansion of digital technologies, social media platforms have become essential spaces for political dialogue, activism, and civic engagement among young people. Using a mixed-method research design involving surveys and interviews with 300 respondents aged 18–30, the study examines how online behavior influences civic awareness, ethical participation, and political involvement. The findings reveal that youth in Gwalior are digitally active and politically conscious, with social media serving as a primary medium for expressing opinions, mobilizing support, and engaging in issue-based movements. However, participation largely remains online-centered, with limited translation into offline political action. Digital citizenship awareness significantly influences the quality of political engagement, while challenges such as misinformation, online harassment, and lack of trust in institutions hinder meaningful participation. The study concludes that promoting media literacy and digital ethics education is essential for strengthening democratic participation and fostering responsible digital citizenship among India’s youth.
References
Allen, D., & Light, J. S. (Eds.). (2015). From voice to influence: Understanding citizenship in a digital age. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press. https://doi.org/10.7208/chicago/9780226262437.001.0001
Bajaj, M. (2019). Conceptualizing transformative agency in education for peace, human rights, and social justice. International Journal of Human Rights Education, 2(1), 1–21. https://repository.usfca.edu/ijhre/vol2/iss1/13
Bartoli, L. (2022). Fridays for Future is back: The March 25 protests. Impakter. https://impakter.com/fridays-for-future-is-back-the-march-25th-protests/
Birnhack, M., & Perry-Hazan, L. (2021). Differential rights consciousness: Teachers’ perceptions of privacy in the surveillance school. Teaching and Teacher Education, 101, 103302. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2021.103302
Choudry, A., & Kapoor, D. (2010). Learning from the ground up: Global perspectives on social movements and knowledge production. New York, NY: Palgrave Macmillan. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230112650
Clément, D. (2011). A sociology of human rights: Rights through a social movements lens. Canadian Review of Sociology/Revue Canadienne de Sociologie, 48(2), 121–135. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1755-618X.2011.01258.x
Daly, A. (2022). Climate competence: Youth climate activism and its impact on international human rights law. Human Rights Law Review, 22(2), 1–24. https://doi.org/10.1093/hrlr/ngac011
Della Porta, D., & Diani, M. (2006). Social movements (2nd ed.). Oxford, UK: Blackwell Publishers Ltd.
Earl, J., & Kimport, K. (2011). Digitally enabled social change: Activism in the Internet age. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. https://doi.org/10.7551/mitpress/9780262015103.001.0001
Fridays for Future. (2022, June 4). Strike statistics – What we do. https://fridaysforfuture.org/what-we-do/strike-statistics/
Gong, R. (2015). Indignation, inspiration, and interaction on the Internet: Emotion work online in the anti-human trafficking movement. Journal of Technology in Human Services, 33(1), 87–103. https://doi.org/10.1080/15228835.2014.998988
Hall, G. (2019). Human rights activism: Factors which influence and motivate young adults in Australia. Human Rights Education Review, 2(2), 26–44. https://doi.org/10.7577/hrer.3295
Haßler, J., Wurst, A.-K., Jungblut, M., & Schlosser, K. (2021). Influence of the pandemic lockdown on Fridays for Future’s hashtag activism. New Media & Society. https://doi.org/10.1177/14614448211026575
Hopkins, K. (2011). Amnesty International's methods of engaging youth in human rights education: Curriculum in the United States and experiential learning in Burkina Faso. Journal of Human Rights Practice, 3(1), 71–92. https://doi.org/10.1093/jhuman/hur007
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). (2022). Climate change 2022: Impacts, adaptation and vulnerability. https://www.ipcc.ch/report/ar6/wg2/
Isenström, L. (2021). Collateral human rights learning situations: What are they? Cambridge Journal of Education, 52(3), 271–290. https://doi.org/10.1080/0305764X.2021.1977782
Jerome, L., & Starkey, H. (2021). Children’s rights education in diverse classrooms: Pedagogy, principles and practice. London: Bloomsbury. https://doi.org/10.5040/9781350062849
Jerome, L., & Starkey, H. (2022). Developing children's agency within a children's rights education framework: 10 propositions. Education 3-13, 50(4), 439–451. https://doi.org/10.1080/03004279.2022.2052233
Johnston, H. (2014). What is a social movement? Cambridge, UK: Polity Press.
Kahne, J., Middaugh, E., & Allen, D. (2014). Youth, new media, and the rise of participatory politics. Youth & Participatory Politics Research Network Working Paper No. 1. https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5e20c70a7802d9509b9aeff2/t/5f1216cdfbd535268c38be0e/1595021007198/YPP_WorkinPapers_Paper01_8.24.17.pdf
Kim, J. (2011). The characteristics of learning in social movements: A pilot study of an environmental organization. Adult Education Research Conference, Toronto, Canada.
Kirshner, B. (2015). Youth activism in an era of education inequality. New York, NY: New York University Press.
Kiwan, D. (2020). Constructions of “youth” and “activism” in Lebanon. In A. Peterson, G. Stahl, & H. Soong (Eds.), The Palgrave handbook of citizenship and education (pp. 567–581). Cham, Switzerland: Palgrave Macmillan. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-67828-3
Kolb, D. A. (2015). Experiential learning: Experience as the source of learning and development (2nd ed.). Pearson Education.
Livingstone, S., Kardefelt-Winther, D., Kanchev, P., Cabello, P., Claro, M., Burton, P., & Phyfer, J. (2019). Is there a ladder of children’s online participation? Findings from three Global Kids Online countries. Innocenti Research Briefs, 2019-02. UNICEF Office of Research – Innocenti, Florence. https://www.unicef-irc.org/publications/1019-ladder-of-childrens-online-participation-findings-from-three-gko-countries.html
Lundy, L., & Martinez Sainz, G. (2018). The role of law and legal knowledge for a transformative human rights education: Addressing violations of children’s rights in formal education. Human Rights Education Review, 1(2), 4–24. https://doi.org/10.7577/hrer.2560
Mallon, B., & Martinez Sainz, G. (2021). Education for children’s rights in Ireland before, during and after the pandemic. Irish Educational Studies, 40(2), 285–294. https://doi.org/10.1080/03323315.2021.1932552
Downloads
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
