Students’ Use of Social Media and Critical Thinking: The Mediating Effect of Engagement

The aim of this book chapter is to empirically explore the mediating role of students’ social media engagement and their ability to think critically. To achieve the aim of the study, we designed a Google Form online survey with questions related to (1) the use of social media, (2) engagement, and (3) critical thinking by the deployment of digital literacy skills. We collected data using convenience sampling techniques. Sixty-seven undergraduate Architecture and Civil engineering students from Tecnologico de Monterrey, Puebla Campus of Mexico volunteered to participate in the study. After data collection, we applied a mediation test by using the “medmod” module of Jamovi software. Results from the data analysis support all proposed hypotheses and also affirm that engagement is partially mediated between the use of social media and the critical thinking skills of undergraduate Architecture and Civil engineering students. Therefore, this study confirms that the use of social media-based course activities is helpful for university students to engage with other peers by deploying digital literacy skills to analyze, share, and communicate relevant information and knowledge about specific topics within the relevant course structure.