Abstract

Available evidence on the demographic characteristics of social media users in Nigeria point to the fact that youth utilize social media platforms the most; available statistics also point to the fact that youth unemployment is a global problem. Despite these facts, limited studies have examined how social media platforms can be used to address the problem of youth unemployment through skill acquisition. In this study, we used variables from e-learning theory, theory of cognitive dissonance, and theory of planned behavior to explore the effectiveness of a social-media based intervention on youth knowledge of painting, fashion and design skills as well as perception about them as sources of income. We also examined predictors of youth intention toward painting, fashion and design as sources of income. We tested the effectiveness of our intervention on 470 (control group, n = 235; treatment group, n = 245). Our results showed that the experiment was effective because members of the treatment group reported better knowledge of painting, fashion and design skill, following the intervention, more positive perception of painting and fashion and design as sources of income, and positive intention toward painting, fashion and design. We made recommendations based on the results of the study.

摘要

关于尼日利亚社交媒体用户人口特征的现有证据表明，年轻人最常使用社交媒体平台；现有统计数据还表明，青年失业是一个全球性问题。尽管存在这些事实，但有限的研究调查了社交媒体平台如何通过技能获取来解决青年失业问题。在这项研究中，我们使用来自电子学习理论、认知失调理论和计划行为理论的变量来探索基于社交媒体的干预对青年绘画、时尚和设计技能知识以及对它们的看法的有效性作为收入来源。我们还研究了青年将绘画、时尚和设计作为收入来源的意愿的预测因素。n  = 235; 治疗组，n  = 245）。我们的结果表明，实验是有效的，因为治疗组的成员在干预后报告了更好的绘画、时尚和设计技能知识，对绘画、时尚和设计作为收入来源的更积极的看法，以及对绘画、时尚的积极意愿和设计。我们根据研究结果提出了建议。