The following study is a qualitative literature review examining the impact of social media on political participation in times of general elections. Ten selected scientific articles have been synthesized and analyzed through a thematic analysis, to present an overview of the research area, its challenges, key elements, central themes and results. The results of this literature review show that 1) the field of research struggles to adequately operationalize key elements such as "social media", "political participation", "general elections", "political exposure" and "political expressiveness", 2) the selected scientific articles thoroughly examine exposure and expressiveness as part of a political conversation, but not the conversation itself; 3) the central themes of the ten selected scientific articles are as exploratory as the field of research in general. These aspects of the result are probably due to the rapid digitalization of society and the relative youth of the phenomena explored. It is suggested that future research operationalize key elements of the research area with greater consideration.