Modeling the relationship between internet epistemic belief, digital literacy and social media engagement of adult social media users: a practical implication for education

ABSTRACT

Social media engagement is part of our society, especially for the younger generation who are keen on technology. Nowadays, social media has become the most used platform to pick up information. Therefore, the increased number of social media users was not followed by the ability to distinguish between fake and authentic information online. There is a reason that drives someone to hold a specific belief since epistemic is a domain-dependent form that exists contextually. This study develops a scale with 33 items to investigate the variables of internet epistemic beliefs, digital literacy, and social media engagements. A total of 512 participants administered the survey using the snowball sampling method. This study generates five CFA analysis factors and concludes a model through an SEM analysis. This study investigated the interrelationship between internet epistemic belief and social media engagement with digital literacy as a mediation role. Findings draw some conclusions and practical implications in preparing the youth to be digitally adaptive and wise.

KEYWORDS:

• Internet epistemic belief
• digital literacy
• social media engagement

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Dani Puspitasari

Dani Puspitasari currently teaches at the Faculty of Teacher Education at Petra Christian University, Surabaya, Indonesia. She obtained her doctoral degree in Digital learning and education at the National Taiwan University of Science and Technology. Her research interest is in English language teaching, epistemic belief, technology enhancing language instruction, augmented reality for education, and social media engagement. She has some publications in the education-related field such as English as Medium instruction, augmented reality in education, and reflection in online learning.

Cathy Weng

Cathy Weng is currently a professor at the Graduate Institute of Digital Learning and Education, National Taiwan University of Science and Technology, Taiwan. Her research interests include social media & information sharing, interactive storybooks and learning, digital reading & storytelling, technology-integrated learning, interdisciplinary collaborative project-based learning, and digital cultural exchange. She also holds several different projects for university social responsibility at NTUST.

Regina Ju-Chun Chu

Regina Juchun Chu is an associate professor at the Graduate Institute of Learning at National Tsing Hua Univeristy at Hsinchu, Taiwan. She is also jointly appointed by Center of Teacher Education. Her expertises include adult education especially for older adults, online learning behavior, organizational behavior and educational administration.

Anita Zi-Chun Chu

Anita Zi-chun Chu is an associate professor at the Department of Educational Management in National Taipei University of Education in Taipei, Taiwan. Her research interests include multicultural education issues on international education, aboriginal education, online learning, organizational resilience, organizational behavior and educational administration.