A Review of the Role of Social Media in Nigerian Youth Participation in Elections

The youth’s seeming apathy towards politics has continued to resonate among researchers, policy makers and other stakeholders. However, the emergence of social media has opened up new frontiers for citizens, especially the youths who are known to be the most populous social media natives. The main purpose of this study is to explore how social media serves as a tool for political sensitisation, mobilisation and influence on participation of Nigerian youths in the electoral process. The study relied on desk review of existing secondary data to establish youths’ utilization of social media and participation in the electoral process. It presents perspectives on media, social media, youths, youth participation, challenges of social media usage in the electoral processes and recommendations. The study is also hinged on technological determinism theory. Findings of study reveal that, with the right enablement, the Nigerian youth will be actively involved in the political process. It also reveals that lack of professionalism, fake news and hate speeches are some challenges of social media usage for political activities and recommends that laws to punish erring users of social media be considered seriously when promoting the use of social media among the youths.