ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Polit. Sci.
Sec. Politics of Technology
Revolutionizing Political Participation: A Modified UTAUT Model for Generation Z in the Digital Era
Provisionally accepted
- 1Department of Political Science, Universitas Sumatera Utara, Medan, Indonesia
- 2Department of Public Administration, Universitas Sriwijaya, Palembang, Indonesia
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This study examined social media–based political participation among Generation Z in North Sumatra, a province known as a multicultural microcosm of Indonesia. Using a modified UTAUT model and connective action theory, the research examines how performance expectancy, effort expectancy, social influence, and facilitating conditions affect behavioral intention to use technology for political participation and actual participation, with political awareness as a moderating factor. Data from 500 university students were analyzed using Structural Equation Modeling (SEM). Findings show that intention significantly mediates the relationship between technological factors and political participation, while political awareness strengthens or weakens these effects. Social media enables spontaneous, flexible, and decentralized political engagement beyond formal institutions. However, the higher the political awareness, the lower the intention to use technologies such as Instagram, TikTok, Twitter, and Facebook. There are third spaces, or hybrid activism, formed as a combination of online and offline elements that facilitate political participation. The study contributes to digital politics literature by offering an integrated framework that explains how personalized political expression, technology use, and civic awareness shape democratic participation in diverse societies. These insights are essential for understanding political behavior in digital and multicultural contexts.
Keywords: Generation Z1, Digital Politics2, Online Political Participation3, Social media4, UTAUT model
Received: 06 Aug 2025; Accepted: 12 Nov 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Amin, Ritonga, Situmorang and Santoso. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Muryanto Amin, muryantoamin@usu.ac.id
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