Springtide Research Institute was recently featured by Psychology Today in an article written by our very own Angela Patterson, Ph.D. You can see an excerpt of this article in part below, but we encourage you to visit their site to read the piece in its entirety.

People engage with social media each day as consumers, but also sometimes as creators; both roles contribute to the delivery of information and the ability to think critically about it. This may be especially true of young people, so-called “digital natives” who often see these platforms as a way to express their creativity. In this way, memes, reels, TikTok, Threads, posts, etc. don’t just allow young people to interpret our society—they also shape its culture.

So what does this mean for young people’s understanding of politics? The latest findings from Springtide Research Institute on Gen Z’s engagement with politics show that while young people know not to trust everything they see on social media, they also see it as a space to learn about political issues and events they aren’t learning about elsewhere. They particularly appreciate seeing events unfold firsthand and hearing from people experiencing them directly.

Click here to read the full article.