Millennial engagement myth-busting: Active disengagement and the future of digital politics

This chapter explores millennials 18-24 years old, but acknowledges that answers might be different for younger and older millennials. It presents the findings from five focus groups that identify how millennial political and civic practices best fit active disengagement and challenge the long-established binary of engagement and disengagement. The chapter describes findings for those studying political communication, media studies, and engagement. The term ‘active disengagement’ is borrowed from the field of counselling and is used as a measure of how engaged a client is in the therapy or counselling process. Scholarship identifies that engagement and disengagement have served as problematic labels for group behaviours. The framework of active disengagement expanded within the project develops from the works of scholars to include findings from a series of five focus groups centred on millennial engagement in politics and civics. An important area of engagement research rests in the reflection on the environment cultivated and shaped through the media.