Dahmen, NicoleJacobsen, TrondNewell, BryceChurch, Lauren2022-07-122022-07-122022https://hdl.handle.net/1794/27281This research examines how the political ideologies and identities of young adults (aged 18 to 25) in the United States are affected by regular use of the social media app, TikTok. Previous studies have found that exposure to political information through social media affects individuals’ political beliefs and engagement, though the intersection of TikTok, young adults, and shifts in political ideology has been largely uninvestigated. This study’s original survey data showed that only 9% of respondents reported their political ideology had not shifted at all. Most participants indicated their political ideology shifted “A great deal” or “A lot” over the course of their regular use of TikTok. When asked to identify the political-ideological nature of their shift in ideology, most respondents indicated that they had become only moderately more liberal or conservative (as opposed to much more) since regularly using the app. There was no clear pattern between party affiliation and direction of ideological change along the political spectrum. This study did not find that more exposure to political news on TikTok correlated with the degree or direction to which participants indicated their ideology had changed. However, the survey data show that the amount of political news respondents reported seeing on TikTok is directly related to their perceived political-ideological ‘sameness’ as most of the users they follow on the app.en-USCC BY-NC-ND 4.0TikTokPolitical SciencePoliticsJournalismSocial MediaThesis/Dissertation0000-0003-0351-2565