The Influence of Different Social Media platform usage on Cyberactivism and Slacktivism

Abstract

The aim of this research is to study the relationship between the usage of different social media platforms and showing cyberactivist and slacktivist behaviour. The emotional and complex contagion theory, the social identity theory and the information diffusion theory are used to predict the influence of Facebook, Twitter and Instagram usage. Using data from the American Trends Panel wave 35, provided by the Pew Research Center, logistic regression analyses were conducted to examine the relationship between Facebook, Twitter and Instagram usage with regards to showing cyberactivist and slacktivist behaviour. Echo chambers and age were used to test for a possible moderating effect. On top of that, the relationship between slacktivism and cyberactivism is examined. Results show that different social media platform usage significantly influence both slacktivism and cyberactivism. However, slacktivism significantly influences the likelihood of people participating in further cyberactivist activities and seems to mediate the relationship of platform usage and cyberactivism. Echo chambers are only of significant influence as a moderating variable on Facebook.