How Do Social Media Affordances Influence Perceived Value and Short Video Users’ Engagement Behavior: A Comparison Between Young and Senior Group

Although short video applications are prevalent among young and senior populations, how their engagement behaviors are influenced remains unclear. To address this, we developed a research model grounded in affordance theory and perceived value theory. This model integrates four social media affordances (recommending, searching, meta-voicing, and persistence), three perceived values (utilitarian, hedonic, and social), and three user engagement behaviors (consuming, participating, and producing). Data were collected from 283 young participants and 344 senior participants (aged over 55 and retired) and analyzed using partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM). Our findings indicated that the recommending, searching, and persistence affordances significantly positively affect perceived values across both age groups while meta-voicing affordance does not significantly influence any values in the senior group. Moreover, social value consistently drives all three levels of engagement across both age groups. These results offer valuable theoretical and practical insights for researchers and practitioners.