Fostering Active Citizenship: Facebook's Role in Youth Civic Engagement

Juan Diego Borrero; Encarna Borrero-Domínguez

doi:10.7764/cdi.57.63423

Authors

Juan Diego Borrero Universidad de Huelva, Huelva, España https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0219-2539
Encarna Borrero-Domínguez Universidad de Huelva, Huelva, España https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7502-6609

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.7764/cdi.57.63423

Keywords:

organismos de participación; participación ciudadana; Facebook; UTAUT; compromiso social; jóvenes; plataformas de redes sociales.

Abstract

Las plataformas de medios sociales (PMS) han revolucionado las redes sociales al facilitar las conexiones y configurar el panorama de las interacciones sociales. Su rol en la participación ciudadana actual, tanto en línea como fuera de ella, es innegable. Sin embargo, para comprender las creencias que impulsan a los jóvenes a utilizar las PMS populares como Facebook para el compromiso cívico, se deben considerar nuevas perspectivas. Este estudio amplía la teoría unificada de la aceptación y el uso de la tecnología (UTAUT) realizando una encuesta entre 209 estudiantes universitarios que utilizan Facebook de forma activa. Nuestros resultados muestran que tanto la expectativa como la influencia social influyen significativamente en la intención de los estudiantes de utilizar Facebook para el compromiso cívico. Asimismo, identificamos los esfuerzos de movilización de Facebook mediante teléfonos inteligentes como un sólido predictor tanto de la intención como del uso de Facebook para el compromiso cívico. Estos resultados indican que Facebook es una valiosa herramienta para que los jóvenes se comprometan y participen en movimientos sociales y políticos en Internet. Aun reconociendo las limitaciones de este estudio, nuestro análisis subraya el inmenso potencial de las PMS como medios para la participación política.

Author Biographies

Juan Diego Borrero, Universidad de Huelva, Huelva, España

Juan Diego Borrero, agricultural engineer, Ph.D. in Economics and Business Studies and bachelor in Law, he has been working since 1999 in the Department of Business Management and Marketing at the Universidad de Huelva. He has conducted several post-doctoral stays in leading research centres such as Cardiff Business School (UK, 2011), Manchester Metropolitan University (UK, 2012), Universidad de Concepción (Chile, 2017), and Nazarbayev University (Kazakhstan, 2022). He is the author of numerous scientific papers and has participated in several R+D+i projects.

Encarna Borrero-Domínguez, Universidad de Huelva, Huelva, España

Encarna Borrero-Domínguez, Psychology student at the Universidad de Huelva and stay at the University of Barcelona (2022-2023). She is currently collaborating with the Department of Business Management and Marketing researching on issues related to social behaviour on the Internet, consumer behaviour, and entrepreneurship, applying various structural equation models.

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