Proceedings of The 6th International Conference on Research in Humanities and Social Sciences
Year: 2022
DOI:
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Viral Content on Social Media in Shaping Youth Mindest and Behaviour Concerning Solidarity
Masliza Che Omar, Syed Agil Shekh Alsagoff, Jusang Bolong, Rosya Izyanie Shamsudeen
ABSTRACT:
Social media is a broad collection of digital platforms which consists of Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Twitter, Wikipedia and other similar applications. It facilitates information sharing and user-generated content which has tremendously changed the way people interact and communicate. Social media also encourages content namely written text, pictures, videos, memes, trolls, tweets or anything else that can be represented digitally to spread rapidly or go viral in a short period of time. Content that induced high arousal emotions is more likely to go viral than content lacked of emotional response. Emotions influence the actions of people and connect directly with solidarity. Most studies examine the link between emotions and behaviours when exploring the viral content on social media. Just like the uncontrolled spread of an epidemic from human being to another, the concept of spreading content by sharing from one person to another or Electronic Word-of- Mouth (eWOM) inevitably shape youth mindset and behaviour. While most researchers agree that emotions serve as a catalyst for sharing content on social media and youth commit themselves as soon as they are emotionally touched, none have explained the viral content might shape youth mindset and behaviour concerning solidarity. This study engages Schema Theory to better understand the phenomenon. This qualitative study is based on focus group discussions with university students age 18 – 25 representing youth age group from 15 – 30 based on Youth Societies and Youth Development Act 2007.
keywords: Viral Content on Social Media, Youth, Mindset, Behaviour, Solidarity.