Social Media Usage and College Students' Political Engagement Input for Enhanced Campus Student Government Initiatives

Social media has become an important space through which college students access information, communicate opinions, and participate in civic and political processes. Within higher education, campus elections and student government activities offer practical opportunities for democratic learning because students evaluate candidates and platforms, vote, raise concerns, and held hold elected representatives accountable. This study examined the relationship between social media usage and political engagement among 362 undergraduate students of the University of La Salette (ULS) and used the findings as a basis for enhanced campus student government initiatives. A descriptive-correlational design was employed. The results showed a high level of overall social media usage (M = 3.41) and a moderate level of political engagement (M = 2.73). Social media usage did not significantly differ by sex. Significant differences in social media usage were found according to academic program, year level, number of social media platforms used, and hours spent on social media per day. Political engagement also differed significantly according to academic program, year level, number of platforms used, and hours spent per day, while no significant differences were found according to age or sex. Active social media usage had moderate positive relationships with latent, follower, expressive, and counter political engagement. Passive usage had a moderate positive relationship with latent engagement and weak positive relationships with follower, expressive, and counter engagement. All relationships were statistically significant. The findings indicated that social media functioned as both an information resource and a participation channel, but students were more politically aware than publicly expressive. These results informed Project CONNECT, an enhanced Campus Student Government initiative centered on accurate governance information, inclusive consultation, responsible digital expression, media literacy, and sustained participation beyond election periods. The study underscored the value of campus elections and student governance as training grounds for responsible participation in broader democratic and general electoral processes.