Cell Phones, Social Networking, and Gender in the Lives of Rural South African Adolescents

• In Event: Roundtable Session 16
  In Roundtable Session: Technology and Equity

Abstract

This paper foregrounds the understudied area of mobile technology within the lives of rural South African adolescents. The authors examine how gender differentiates a youth’s relationship and use of their cellphones and social networking sites. Young peoples’ attachment to their cellphones contributes to contemporary youth identity, social learning, and the dynamic cultures emerging from hyper-connected lives. While many young people have figured out the technology and its uses, they require support in learning how to safely navigate a social context in which rurality, poverty, and patriarchy intersect. Educational researchers and practitioners need to think about how cellphones and social media may also act as agents of change to address some of the gendered spaces South African adolescents navigate both on-and-offline.

Authors

• Ashley DeMartini, McGill University

• Claudia Mitchell, McGill University