Study: 39% Of Americans Took Part in Political Or Social Activity During The 2012 Campaign

During the 2012 it may have felt like 100% of the people you saw on Twitter and Facebook featured politically-oriented content the the actual number was far less. A new Pew Internet study shows that 39%  of adults took part in some form of political activity on  a social network.

The majority of the activity came in the form of liking or sharing political material (23% of all adults polled). Of all social networking specific users, 38% were active liking or sharing political material. The second most social activity to do with politics (35%) was to encourage others to vote. Social networks were leveraged heavily to promote specific opinions as well as 34% of all social users posted their own thoughts/comments.

Political expression on social networking sites was especially popular in younger demographics. 67% of 18-24 year olds engaged in some form of political postings nearly triple the overall sample size of 23%.

Social media also helped to mold options this election. 43% of social networking uses decided to learn more about a specific topic based off of something that they read on a social networking site. It didn’t stop there either. Of the polled audience 12% followed or friended a candidate as well.

For more information see the full report from Pew Internet.