Facebook was not a hotbed of political activity during the 2008 U.S. Presidential election

The 2008 election which saw President Barack Obama elected was hailed as the first ‘Facebook election’. But was Facebook really a ‘hotbed’ for political activity in that election? Using data from questionnaires and Facebook profiles, Juliet Carlisle and Rob Patton take a close look at the nature of political engagement on Facebook during the 2008 election. They find that the variables that are known to predict political participation in the offline world, such as sex and parental income, are not predictors of political activity in the Facebook environment. They also find, surprisingly, that those with more friends and who belong to more Facebook groups are less likely to be politically active.