Social Media in Shaping Political Engagement of Pakistani Youth

Abstract

The basic tool used for political engagement and awareness growth among Pakistani youth is social media. The effects rely on three factors which are gender, education level and the frequency of social media use. Research about digital political participation continues its expansion because these outcomes provide essential data for people who want to increase democratic youth participation through social media policies. The study investigates how Facebook together with Twitter (X) and TikTok influence Pakistani youth participation by affecting their political consciousness while shaping their content intake practices. The research project surveyed 342 participants between 18 to 60 years who came from different educational backgrounds and included men and women. The investigation measured social media activity along with political content and participation through descriptive and inferential statistical models which consisted of reliability testing and Pearson correlations and ANOVA and Tukey HSD post hoc tests. Social media users the research indicates heavier users take part more frequently in political activities than less frequent users. People who use social media heavily develop intricate connections with their political engagement. The research data established that how much time participants spent on social media remained disconnected from their knowledge of political content. Male users show greater political activity levels compared to females who spend their time mainly on consuming political content according to education level differences. The study showed that academic achievements drive women to become more politically active yet do not influence men equally.