Isabella Bacino's study found that college students who were less politically engaged were more likely to have their political views influenced by social media. Many students said they were swayed by the large number of political posts in their social media feeds. Since platforms like Facebook and Twitter are major forums for political discussion, seeing frequent political posts makes it inevitable that users will engage with different political perspectives and have their own views affected as a result.

1. STUDENTS’ POLITICALVIEWS ARE
AFFECTED BY NUMBER OF POSTS
THEY SEE
Isabella Bacino

2. INTRODUCTION
 A student at California Polytechnic State University in San Luis
Obispo, Isabella Bacino is working toward a degree in political
science. Recently, Isabella Bacino completed a technical report
analyzing the influence of social media on the political beliefs of
college students.
In the study, college students were presented with a set of
questions inquiring about how they believed social media
influenced their political opinions. Many respondents affirmed
that social media indeed influenced their political opinions.

3. POLITICALVIEWS
 The study found that students who were not politically engaged
were more likely to be influenced by news spread on social
media.
When students were asked why they were influenced by news
on social media, students gave varied responses. Many
attributed it to the many number of political posts on their
timelines. Because social media sites like Facebook andTwitter
had become the largest platforms for discourse in the world, it is
inevitable that people will discuss politics.These discussions,
framed in the context of posts, shares, and retweets, are often
engaging, persuasive, or at least interesting enough to influence
students politically.You can read more at isabellabacino.org.