IMPACT OF SOCIAL MEDIA USE ON POLITICAL PARTICIPATION AND POLITICAL DECISION MAKING AMONG YOUNG ADULTS IN PAKISTAN
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Abstract
The present study examines the impact of social media use on political participation and political decision-making among young adults in Pakistan. The research was divided into three Phases. Phase 1 was executed to translate the measurement instrument and to determine their psychometric properties, whereas Phase 2 was a pilot study. Phase 3 was the main study that accounted for the testing of hypotheses. Independent samples of university students for Phase-1 (N = 200), Phase-2, pilot study (N = 200), and Phase-3, main study (N = 500) were collected by the researcher. Social Networking Usage Questionnaire (Gupta & Bashir, 2018), Political Participation Scale (Gopal & Verma, 2017), Political Decision Making Scale (Lau et al., 2018), and Urdu translated version of the Openness to Experience and Conscientiousness subscales of NEO-Five Factor Inventory (Costa & McCrae, 1992) were used to operationalize the constructs and collection of data through convenient sampling technique. Results elucidated social media usage overall and its components, socialization and informativeness, as positive predictors of political Participation, Whereas social media use for academic purposes negatively predicted political participation. The relationship between social media use for entertainment purposes and political participation was found to be non-significant. Moreover, social media use for academic and entertainment purposes positively predicted political decision-making. Overall, these findings emphasize the significant role of social media in political participation and decision-making among young adults. Limitations of the study and its implications have also been discussed for further exploration of this domain.
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