7. The Influence of Trust and Ease of Use of Social Media Platforms on South Africa’s Generation Y Social Media Use Intention and Information Sharing

The changes that have occurred in communication technologies have extensively impacted how Generation Y, also known as the digital natives, receives and disseminates information. Having been born in the digital environment where the use of various social media platforms such as Facebook, YouTube, What’s Up, Twitter, Skype and MySpace have proliferated, Generation Y has become an important market segment for both academics and practitioners. While there is substantial research on social media, most of the studies have focused on developed markets. Moreover, scant attention is given to the empirical investigation of the influence of social media trust and ease of use on use intention and information sharing among the Generation Y virtual community in this emerging market context. Consequently, the primary objective of this study is to fill this void by examining how trust and ease of use of social media tools among Generation Y virtual community members influence information sharing with their peers. In addition, the study focuses on the mediating role of social media use intention in these peer-to-peer relationships. Sample data of 150 respondents were collected in South African universities for final data analysis. All three posited hypotheses are supported. Managerial implications of the findings, limitations, and future research directions are discussed.