Navigating Social Media: How Offline Ethics, Online Etiquette, and Protection Behavior Shape Self-Disclosure

Self-disclosure is one of the inevitable risky behaviors when using social media, which could lead to grave repercussions. Though self-disclosing benefits are abundant, risks like privacy invasion, security breaches, victim blaming, and cyber victimization await. However, the existing literature mainly discusses privacy-related factors as self-disclosure protection factors; although there have been several discussions regarding acting ethically to ensure cyber safety, it has yet to be investigated in relevance to self-disclosure behavior. Therefore, this study examines the relationship between social media etiquette, protection behavior, and self-disclosure on social media. We also discuss the relationship between offline ethical behavior through the Islamic lens and social media etiquette. Using a quantitative method, we assess the effect of social media etiquette and protection behavior on social media self-disclosures. We surveyed Muslim Malaysian adult social media users and analyzed the findings using partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM). Results show that offline ethical behavior significantly affects social media etiquette. We also found that social media etiquette and perceived vulnerability negatively relate to social media self-disclosure. However, perceived severity, self-efficacy, and response efficacy do not significantly affect social media self-disclosures. This study sheds light on the importance of offline ethical behavior in shaping social media etiquette. Consequently, good social media etiquette has an impact on self-disclosure behavior. Thus, these findings offer essential insights for academics, practitioners, and social media platforms on future mitigation efforts for risky social media self-disclosures.