Social and Psychological Aspects

Young Men’s Social Media Use & Fashion Innovativeness: Body Consciousness, Vanity and Para-social Interaction

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Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine relationships among young men’s social media use, fashion innovativeness, body consciousness, vanity and para-social interaction. Participants were 145 male college students (M age = 21.58). Participants’ ethnicity included 28 African American, 9 Asian, 86 Caucasian, 10 Hispanic/Latino and 12 others from ~38 different majors. Data analysis included descriptive statistics, reliability, M/ANOVA and Student-Newman-Keuls post hoc test. Results of this study show that young men with higher (vs lower) social media use had greater body consciousness, higher vanity, and greater para-social relationships. The more young men used social media, the more conscious they were of the appearance of their body compared to others, the higher their vanity, and the greater their para-social interactions. Young men differ in fashion innovativeness and this variable plays a part in body consciousness, vanity, and para-social relationships.

Keywords: Young men, social media, fashion innovativeness, body consciousness, vanity

How to Cite:

Workman, J. E., Lee, S. & Liang, Y., (2022) “Young Men’s Social Media Use & Fashion Innovativeness: Body Consciousness, Vanity and Para-social Interaction”, International Textile and Apparel Association Annual Conference Proceedings 79(1). doi: https://doi.org/10.31274/itaa.16033