Social media usage and acculturation: A test with Hispanics in the U.S.

•Social media usage affects Hispanics’ acculturation into the American society.•Use of social media in English and Spanish leads to different effects.•Use of English social media helps Hispanics assimilate to the American culture.•Use of Spanish social media reinforces Hispanics’ ethnic cultural identification.•Hispanics with various demographic characteristics use social media differently.

Dominating the media landscape today, social media are cultural institutions that influence users’ cultural orientation. This study focused on how using social media might strengthen or weaken people’s tendency toward certain cultural value systems. Specifically, how English and Spanish social media usage affected Hispanic users’ acculturation into the American culture was examined. Through a survey of 996 self-identified Hispanic respondents in the U.S., it was found that English social media usage helped them develop strong orientation toward the mainstream American culture, while Spanish social media consumption reinforced their ethnic Hispanic cultural identification. This study further examined whether Hispanics with various demographic characteristics used social media differently and acculturated into the American society to different degrees.