Acceptance and Engagement with Short-Form Political Videos among Young Social Media Users in Tamil Nadu: An Extended Technology Acceptance Model

Abstract

The rapid expansion of short-form video platforms has fundamentally altered the ways in which young people encounter, interpret and respond to political information. This study applies an extended version of the Technology Acceptance Model to investigate the factors that shape acceptance of and engagement with short-form political videos among young social-media users in Tamil Nadu. Drawing on a quantitative cross-sectional survey of 300 respondents aged 18–30 years in Coimbatore district, the research examines the influence of perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, trust in political video content and digital literacy on users’ willingness to accept such videos, and subsequently on their engagement behaviours. Descriptive statistics, reliability analysis, Pearson correlation and multiple regression were employed. Results indicate that perceived usefulness is the strongest predictor of acceptance, followed closely by trust and digital literacy, while perceived ease of use exerts a smaller yet statistically significant effect. Acceptance, in turn, shows a clear positive association with engagement activities such as liking, sharing, saving and discussing political videos. The findings extend the Technology Acceptance Model to the distinctive affordances of short-form political video and underscore the continuing centrality of usefulness and trust in an environment characterised by high volume, algorithmic curation and variable source credibility. Implications for political communicators, digital-literacy educators and platform designers are discussed.