Influence of Social Media on the Behavioral Formation of Digital Natives: a Moderation Approach

Purpose: This study examined the influence of social media on the behavioural formation of digital natives in Lagos, Nigeria, with a specific focus on the accessibility and pattern of social media usage, the online experience, and the influence of social media on the behavioural formation of digital natives. Design/Methodology/Approach: Using a stratified proportionate sample strategy, 450 social media users who grew up in the digital age across 10 local government areas in Lagos, Nigeria, provided the data for this quantitative study, where the heuristic model for the relationship was subjected to a string of tests using the partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) technique. Findings: Discovery revealed that social media has a favourable impact on the behavioural formation of digital natives, whereby digital natives’ nature moderates the structural relationship between social media and behavioural formation. Original/Value: The study novelty appears on the side of Technological Determinism Theory postulated on social media as extremely popular among Nigerian digital natives and is one of the key contributors to the deterioration of digital natives’ behavioural formation in terms of morality, secretive information accessing, online insecurity, as well as the propagation of rumor and propaganda. Practical implications: Because of the established dialectical connection between society and technology, widespread social media literacy is now possible, even among the humblest of households.