This paper critically examines the role new media can play in the political engagement of young people. Moving away from “deficit” models of youth participation that drove the interest in “civics” education in the 1990s, the paper argues two major points. First, that there is a comparatively well-established model of contemporary political mobilization that employs both new media and large data analysis that can be, and has been, effectively applied to young people in electoral and non-electoral contexts. The recent school climate strikes are cited as an example. Second, and more critically, the paper argues that new media, and particularly social media, are not democratic fora and their general use and adoption by young and older people does not cultivate democratic values. The focus on scale as drivers of influence, mass use of algorithms, and centralized editorial control of these platforms make them highly participative, but illiberal sites for political socialization and practice. Without the development of democratic structures within those institutions in which young people spend most of their time – families, training institutions, private civil society clubs – an emphasis on engagement and mobilization runs the risk of being simply “therapy” as articulated by Arnstein’s typology of civic participation types.