How do Digital Divides Determine Social Media Users’ Aspirations to Influence Others?
: Malinen Sanna, Koivula Aki, Koiranen Ilkka
: Anatoliy Gruzd, Philip Mai, Raquel Recuero, Ángel Hernández-García, Chei Sian Lee, James Cook, Jaigris Hodson, Bree McEwan, Jill Hopke
: International Conference on Social Media and Society
: New york
: 2020
: SMSociety'20: International Conference on Social Media and Society
: ACM International Conference Proceeding Series
: 11th International Conference on Social Media and Society
: 141
: 147
: 978-1-4503-7688-4
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1145/3400806.3400823
As the
social media landscape has become a significant space for civic and political
activity, it has created new opportunities for individuals to influence others’
opinions. Relying on survey data from Finland (N=3,724), this study focuses on motivation
to influence online and identifies social media users who wish to express their
opinions and persuade others. First, using factor analysis, we detect influential motivation to use social
media. Second, we analyze how socio-demographic background, digital skills and
interest in politics predict the probability of influential aspiration. Our
findings show digital divides in online participation and in people’s
intentions to influence others. Drawing on digital divide theory, we discuss
how different motivations to use social media lead to varied outcomes in terms
of benefits, producing digital divides.
