An Analysis of First-Time Voters’ Digital Political Participation and Ideological Polarization in Elections
Keywords:
digital political participation, first-time voters, ideological polarization, networked reinforcement, electionsAbstract
The digitalization of political communication expanded first-time voters’ participation while simultaneously intensifying ideological polarization through social media during elections. This study aimed to analyze first-time voters’ digital political participation, identify the mechanisms shaping ideological polarization, and develop a conceptual model explaining their relationship. A qualitative multiple case study design was employed. Data were collected through semi-structured in-depth interviews, nonparticipant digital observation, and digital artifact documentation, then analyzed using reflexive thematic analysis through within-case and cross-case procedures. The findings identified four interconnected processes: personalized political exposure, digital expression as identity affirmation, networked validation reinforcing political positions, and ideological boundary crystallization. Networked ideological reinforcement emerged as the principal mechanism linking digital political participation with ideological polarization. Nevertheless, diverse information exposure, systematic information verification, cross-group interaction, and critical reflection generated a reflective moderation pathway that reduced polarization tendencies. The study developed the Digital Participation-Ideological Polarization Mechanism among First-Time Voters, demonstrating that ideological polarization constituted a conditional outcome of recurring political expression, social validation, and identity reinforcement while highlighting first-time voters as active agents capable of strengthening or moderating ideological boundaries within increasingly personalized digital electoral environments.
Downloads
References
Bail, C. A., Argyle, L. P., Brown, T. W., Bumpus, J. P., Chen, H., Hunzaker, M. B. F., Lee, J., Mann, M., Merhout, F., & Volfovsky, A. (2018). Exposure to opposing views on social media can increase political polarization. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 115(37), 9216–9221. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1804840115
Boulianne, S. (2020). Twenty Years of Digital Media Effects on Civic and Political Participation. Communication Research, 47(7), 947–966. https://doi.org/10.1177/0093650218808186
Boulianne, S., & Theocharis, Y. (2020). Young People, Digital Media, and Engagement: A Meta-Analysis of Research. Social Science Computer Review, 38(2), 111–127. https://doi.org/10.1177/0894439318814190
Boxell, L., Gentzkow, M., & Shapiro, J. M. (2024). Cross-Country Trends in Affective Polarization. The Review of Economics and Statistics, 106(2), 557–565. https://doi.org/10.1162/rest_a_01160
Brady, W. J., Wills, J. A., Jost, J. T., Tucker, J. A., & Van Bavel, J. J. (2017). Emotion shapes the diffusion of moralized content in social networks. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 114(28), 7313–7318. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1618923114
Cho, J., Ahmed, S., Keum, H., Choi, Y. J., & Lee, J. H. (2018). Influencing Myself: Self-Reinforcement Through Online Political Expression. Communication Research, 45(1), 83–111. https://doi.org/10.1177/0093650216644020
Cinelli, M., De Francisci Morales, G., Galeazzi, A., Quattrociocchi, W., & Starnini, M. (2021). The echo chamber effect on social media. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 118(9), e2023301118. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2023301118
Demszky, D., Garg, N., Voigt, R., Zou, J., Shapiro, J., Gentzkow, M., & Jurafsky, D. (2019). Analyzing Polarization in Social Media: Method and Application to Tweets on 21 Mass Shootings. Dalam J. Burstein, C. Doran, & T. Solorio (Ed.), Proceedings of the 2019 Conference of the North American Chapter of the Association for Computational Linguistics: Human Language Technologies, Volume 1 (Long and Short Papers) (hlm. 2970–3005). Association for Computational Linguistics. https://doi.org/10.18653/v1/N19-1304
Ekström, M., & Shehata, A. (2018). Social media, porous boundaries, and the development of online political engagement among young citizens. New Media & Society, 20(2), 740–759. https://doi.org/10.1177/1461444816670325
Guess, A. M., Malhotra, N., Pan, J., Barberá, P., Allcott, H., Brown, T., Crespo-Tenorio, A., Dimmery, D., Freelon, D., Gentzkow, M., González-Bailón, S., Kennedy, E., Kim, Y. M., Lazer, D., Moehler, D., Nyhan, B., Rivera, C. V., Settle, J., Thomas, D. R., … Tucker, J. A. (2023). Reshares on social media amplify political news but do not detectably affect beliefs or opinions. Science, 381(6656), 404–408. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.add8424
Huszár, F., Ktena, S. I., O’Brien, C., Belli, L., Schlaikjer, A., & Hardt, M. (2022). Algorithmic amplification of politics on Twitter. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 119(1), e2025334119. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2025334119
Kligler-Vilenchik, N., & Literat, I. (2025). Expressive citizenship: Youth, social media, and democracy. Journal of Children and Media, 19(1), 46–52. https://doi.org/10.1080/17482798.2024.2438680
Kubin, E., & von Sikorski, C. (2021). The Role of (Social) Media in Political Polarization: A Systematic Review. Annals of the International Communication Association, 45(3), 188–206. https://doi.org/10.1080/23808985.2021.1976070
Moffett, K. W., & Rice, L. L. (2024). TikTok and Civic Activity Among Young Adults. Social Science Computer Review, 42(2), 535–553. https://doi.org/10.1177/08944393231188470
Ohme, J. (2019). When digital natives enter the electorate: Political social media use among first-time voters and its effects on campaign participation. Journal of Information Technology & Politics, 16(2), 119–136. https://doi.org/10.1080/19331681.2019.1613279
Osmundsen, M., Bor, A., Vahlstrup, P. B., Bechmann, A., & Petersen, M. B. (2021). Partisan Polarization Is the Primary Psychological Motivation behind Political Fake News Sharing on Twitter. American Political Science Review, 115(3), 999–1015. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0003055421000290
Rathje, S., Van Bavel, J. J., & van der Linden, S. (2021). Out-group animosity drives engagement on social media. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 118(26), e2024292118. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2024292118
Saud, M., & Margono, H. (2021). Indonesia’s rise in digital democracy and youth’s political participation. Journal of Information Technology & Politics, 18(4), 443–454. https://doi.org/10.1080/19331681.2021.1900019
Setiawati, T., Tiara, A., & Mustika, S. (2023). Social Media as a Negative Source of Political News in a Polarized Society? Indonesian and Filipino Students’ Perception. Jurnal Komunikasi, 17(2), 243–256. https://doi.org/10.20885/komunikasi.vol17.iss2.art7
Subekti, D., Yusuf, M., Saadah, M., & Wahid, M. (2025). Social media and disinformation for candidates: The evidence in the 2024 Indonesian presidential election. Frontiers in Political Science, 7. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpos.2025.1625535
Sukidin, Hudha, C., & Basrowi. (2025). Shaping democracy in Indonesia: The influence of multicultural attitudes and social media activity on participation in public discourse and attitudes toward democracy. Social Sciences & Humanities Open, 11, 101440. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssaho.2025.101440
Tarsidi, D. Z., Suryadi, K., Budimansyah, D., & Rahmat, R. (2023). Social media usage and civic engagement among Indonesian digital natives: An Analysis. Jurnal Civics: Media Kajian Kewarganegaraan, 20(2), 257–269.
Theocharis, Y., Boulianne, S., Koc-Michalska, K., & Bimber, B. (2023). Platform affordances and political participation: How social media reshape political engagement. West European Politics, 46(4), 788–811. https://doi.org/10.1080/01402382.2022.2087410
Weismueller, J., Gruner, R. L., Harrigan, P., Coussement, K., & Wang, S. (2024). Information sharing and political polarisation on social media: The role of falsehood and partisanship. Information Systems Journal, 34(3), 854–893. https://doi.org/10.1111/isj.12453
Zhu, A. Y. F., Chan, A. L. S., & Chou, K. L. (2019). Creative social media use and political participation in young people: The moderation and mediation role of online political expression. Journal of Adolescence, 77, 108–117. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.adolescence.2019.10.010
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2026 Arditya Prayogi, Ali Ismail Shaleh, Ahmad Said (Author)
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
This journal applies the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License (CC BY-SA 4.0). Authors retain copyright and grant the journal the right of first publication. Under this license, others may copy, redistribute, remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially, provided that appropriate credit is given to the original author(s) and source, and any derivative works are distributed under the same license.
