Is Digital Altruism the Same as Offline Altruism?: An Exploration of Strength-Based Determinants Among Generation Z during COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

Digital altruism is a new form of altruism on social media platforms. Social media has been a vital tool for sharing and seeking information for day-to-day situations, enabling people to seek and render help. Engaging in helping behaviour could be purely out of altruism or can be traced back to their professional requirements. Social media platforms have brought out people’s altruistic side on multiple occasions. The present study looked at the altruism levels of Indian Generation-Z social media users and how it is influenced by the users’ strength-based determinants, i.e. empathy, compassion, social justice, optimism, social intelligence, and personality, compared to offline altruism. The altruism levels, both online and offline, and the strength-based determinants of 204 participants between the age group of 16-24 years were measured. A regression analysis was run to understand the nature of the relationship between the independent and dependent variables. The results indicated that certain strength-based determinants impacted the levels of digital altruism.