ONLINE COMMENTS AND THEIR EFFECTS ON POLITICAL BEHAVIOR IN SOCIAL MEDIA USERS

Abstract

The advent of social media as a fast-expanding communication medium has altered the way people communicate politically and online comment boxes have become powerful platforms where citizens can discuss issues. This paper explores the impacts of online comments on political behavior by looking at exposure, perceptions, and reactions of users in online space. The research design was quantitative and a structured online survey was used in order to gather data on 170 social media users. The descriptive analysis of statistics was done to find out trends in the engagement, credibility perceptions and behavioral influence. The results show that use of political content and comment sections is prevalent among users which underscores the importance of social media in political communication. Nonetheless, the findings show that online remarks do not have a direct impact on political views and voting patterns since the majority of the respondents declared that they become neutral or opposed to the persuasive attempts. Nevertheless, a considerable percentage of respondents admitted that comment sections are a source of political polarization and major misinformation. The research comes to the conclusion that online comments have an indirect effect on political behavior by affecting the perceptions, emotional attachments and the informational landscape. These results highlight the necessity of better content regulation and the development of media literacy in order to reduce the adverse impact of online political communication.