Role of Social Media in Youth

Leadership Development
Abstract
This study takes into account the impact of social media on leadership participation among the Youths. Using a
conceptual framework, the study looks to find out the possible reasons why most youths at secondary and tertiary
educational institutions have low involvement in leadership activities in their societies. The study uses a survey and
proportionate stratified random sampling method to collect data beforehand. Data is analyzed by making use of
regression techniques. The results of this study would hopefully provide useful reference to both the Government in
proper social and leadership policy decisions and also the private sector that could lead to increased leadership
participation among the young generation.

Introduction
As future leaders, the role of youths in the political and social-economic development of a country is indispensable as
they are considered the active working group. Therefore, to nourish their thinking towards this role and make them
strong enough to contribute to informed decisions about their personal, family, social and political upbringing, they
need to participate in current leadership activities in their communities, whatever their social background is. Such
involvement would provide the current leaders with a chance to answer the needs of the youths and fulfil their basic
human rights. It would also give the youths an opportunity to work with the adults and same-age groups on continual
basis. For example, youth’s involvements in cocurricular activities are vital signs of community involvement in
leadership.

This study purports to find the possible reasons why most youths do not enthusiastically take part in leadership
activities in their societies (e.g., political campaigns) and in their schools (e.g., student union leadership). Its purpose
is also to examine the impact of social media on youth’s leadership participation. This research is aimed at uncovering
answers to these questions.

Majority of the recent studies have proven that social atmosphere has positive influence on attitude. As a result, this
study examined the potential impact of social media, on youth’s leadership participation because it is seen that many
youths are inclined to send photos on social media than handwritten notes, thereby badly impacting their vocabulary,
while few others succumb to the tendency to become a part of bad social groups that create difficulties to
contemporary world leaders in present times.

Not many studies have dissected youth’s political participation. Other such doings studied social media and youth’s
social development, youth’s academic performance. However, there exists dearth of studies that examined social
media and youth’s leadership involvement specifically. Further studies are required in this domain to build up the
literature base. Thus, this study went through social media influence and youth’s leadership participation.

Problem Description
It is known that most young people in third-world countries, do not take a rigorous part in community development
activities and other self-aid projects that make for competition among themselves in spite of the availability of such
programs offered by most NGOs and national, state and governmental agencies or authorities.

Studies have disclosed that improper use of social media among the young generation around the globe is having
dangerous negative repercussions for their personal, academic, social, communal and even national or international
lives. For example, many young students who wasted too much time on social media in chatting on differing social
media platforms, music and online games gradually descended in their academic performance. Social media provided
many youths with false sense of privacy, reduced their face-to-face communication skills in real life, while few others
lost their hard-earned money to Internet frauds.

Research questions
1. Is the exposure to, and extensive use of, social media leading to positive or negative influence on youth’s
leadership participation?
2. Do youths’ parents, relatives, friends and other social groups provide positive or negative information and
resources to the youths to make it possible for them to take part in leadership activities?
3. Do government’s public policies, ethnicity, communal factors and democratic thinking encourage youth’s
participation in leadership activities or else?

Scope
The scope of this project was to analyze the influences of varying degrees that the social media had on our youth
especially in terms of developing the attributes of leadership in them. Various other factors, which might be the key
in certain situations were not considered as it would have been outside the ambit of this project report.

Limitations
The scope of this project was limited to only studying the influence of social media on youth leadership development.
It did not delve into other important factors that might play a significant role in this regard like varying socio-political
factors.

Literature Review
Gazzar (2011) used questionnaire survey to elicit responses from 200 high school teenagers

(age 12-18 years) on the impact of social media, particularly Face-book, on youth’s

behavior towards socio-political transformations in Cairo, Egypt. The study found encouraging

effect of social media on youth’s political know-how, and their participation in social

activities like cleaning the streets etc. However, other youths pointed out that receiving a

forwarded message or spreading calls about a big change make them feel they ought to

take part in their country’s series of occurrences. This shows the fact that social media could also provide narrative
to the youths that could be against the current leadership in a country.

Using a survey on 3,000 students (age 15-25) in USA, Kahne and Middaugh (2012)

found fruitful impact of social media on academic and political involvement of the

youths in terms of making connections and sharing of information to each other. In the same way, using a qualitative
research method and descriptive statistics, Kafai et al. (2012) analyzed online social awareness of 21 high school
local teens (age 14-15) in six groups on task completion, and found a positive relationship due to cooperative team
work in USA.

Ayub et al. (2014) found a very low relation between time spent on internet usage and student’s attitude towards their
studies in Malaysia. Therefore, remaining cognizant of the fact that pupils who spent more time on the internet did
not make that much use of it for academic purposes, compared with students who spent less time on internet. More
amount of time spent on internet browsing or searching was actually spent on interactions with friends concerning
their personal and social issues.
Latane (1996) said that behaviors, thoughts, practices and personalities could be impacted

through interactive chatting with other people on the social media. So,

this study is linked to Social Impact Theory (Latane, 1996) and Theory of Planned

Behavior (Ajzen, 1991).

Sources of Data
The data relating to this study was obtained beforehand by directly communicating with and interviewing a suitable
number of youngsters studying in various institutes in Islamabad. The questions specifically prepared for the purpose
were asked to which the interviewees responded. Those responses made the basis over which our results are based on.
The notes of the conversation were also jotted down for future reference.

Sampling Technique
The study adopted a proportionate stratified random sampling method. That is, the population was divided into regions
for the study. Then, simple random sampling was applied on each region’s sample members to select the sample
elements. The sample members were interviewed for the purpose of our project. In this study, a sample size
determination by Israel (1992) based on Yamane’s (1967) formula was utilized.

Data Analysis
Data analysis involved descriptive statistics, and regression techniques.

Interpretation of results
The results were interpreted with caution and might not be a perfectly accurate depiction of the scenario till the last
figure.

The results indicated that social could both be a blessing and a menace at the same time. If used positively, it can
surely help the young minds to get inspiration and get inculcated in themselves the characteristics of good leadership
i.e., leadership qualities. However, some things need to be fixed as there are factors that are not helping the cause, that
is to say that a significant portion of the youth are being even deprived of the pre-requisites of leadership that a good
leader must possess.

Conclusion
It is anticipated that the results of this study would help the Governments to make better socio-political and leadership
policy decisions. This could create increased leadership participation among the youths.

Recommendations
1. Different youth leadership training courses should be carried out through social media by both governments
and the private sector.
2. Youth should be provided complete guidance on how to efficiently balance their social and social media
lives.
3. A sense should be inculcated among the young students to prevent them from wasting their invaluable time
on negative social media activities. Positive use of the same should be encouraged at the same time.
4. Specifically, guided instructions should be made available to the younger generation on how to most
effectively make the best use of social media for learning leadership attributes.
Relation to E-Commerce
The topic also has a bearing to the e-commerce market as there has been an increased tendency of the corporate leaders
round the globe to use social media as a tool for managing stakeholder relations in an improved way. Social media
can be highly effective in efficiently managing your business and taking it to a whole new level.

For that purpose, different digital platforms should be used appropriately to disseminate information (regarding your
policies, future plans etc.), that can be useful for various stakeholder groups including investors, suppliers, customers,
government and the public at large. Social media could be used to gain competitive advantage over your competitors
that could be extremely useful in both short and the long terms.

Personal Learning
The project was worthwhile as it definitely helped me with improving my research techniques and also gave me an
insight into a very contemporary topic of social media influence on youth leadership. Moreover, the undertaking of
this project gave me good practice at analyzing differing viewpoints and then grading them one above the other. As a
whole, the project was a wonderful experience.

References
1. https://www.brianhonigman.com/social-media-for-leadership/
2. https://www.globalyouthvillage.org/social-media-teens-and-leadership-a-new-conversation/
3. https://studentsatthecenterhub.org/blog/tips-on-using-social-media-for-youth-organizing-a-listicle/
4. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/325989176_Social_Media_Socio-
Political_Influence_and_Youth's_Leadership_Participation_in_Malaysia_A_Conceptual_Framework
5. https://trainingmag.com/trgmag-article/leader-social-media/
6. https://janettetoral.com/blog/social-media-and-social-responsibility-for-youth-leaders/
7. https://ashmita01.wordpress.com/2013/06/30/role-of-social-media-to-build-youth-capacity/
8. https://businessesgrow.com/2014/10/06/social-media-and-leadership/
9. http://www.leadershipchallenge.com/resource/social-media-and-leadership-development.aspx