Sinaye Akhumzi Mtimba
Abstract
In the digital era, social media has emerged as an influential financial socialisation agent, particularly among young adults. This study conducted a descriptive literature review to explore how social media acts as an agent of responsible financial behaviour among young adults. The review examined 32 journal articles that empirically investigated social media in relation to financial behaviour and young adults, six articles were selected for further analysis as they particularly looked at young adults. The findings show a shift from traditional financial socialisation agents such as parents, peers, and formal education to the informal sources such as social media finfluencers. The findings suggest that despite social media offering easy accessibility and relatability to young adults, it poses potential risk of misinformation as the content produced can be inaccurate, lack credibility as well as ethical considerations of unregulated financial advice. The study provides insights for the financial services industry, educators and policy makers on how to better engage young adults to improve financial literacy using social media. The study further recommends future empirical studies to explore the role of financial influencers on financial literacy, with a special focus on the perspective of the finfluencer as well as within the African context.