The use of
information and communication technologies pervades our lives. A specific type
of social media that is playing a crucial role in this upsurge of participation
in cyber-collective social movements (CSMs) is the social networking sites
(SNS). We employ an extended model from the Unified Theory of Acceptance and
Use of Technology (UTAUT) as our theoretical framework to understand student
perceptions of SNS use expectations (performance expectancy and effort
expectancy), social acceptance (social influence), and their perceptions about
resource availability (facilitating conditions) for expressive social
participation. This extended model introduces social variables (SNS
mobilization effort and offline civic participation) that researchers have
identified as important in explaining behaviors. In doing so, it advances a
model of how activities in the online domain can ‘spill’ over to the offline
domain. We have provided empirical support for the applicability of UTAUT to
the expressive participation in CSMs via a survey of 214 SNS users. Our results
confirm that expectancy and social influence significantly affect student
intentions to use SNS for expressive participation in CSMs. Likewise, SNS
mobilization effort emerged as a strong significant predictor of both intention
and the use of SNS for expressive participation, but not for offline civic
participation. Last, the use of SNS for expressive participation was a
significant predictor for offline civic participation, which suggests that
users who publicly express their socio-political opinions in SNS are more
likely than others to participate in demonstrations.
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