This article is based on my most recent research for a mobile service provider in South Africa. This aimed at understanding how people from varied socio-economic backgrounds use a particular online social network and instant chatting site.
I observed and talked to 20 people aged between 19-27 years old across all races, and from different socio-economic backgrounds.
I will focus on the main finding of the research, which was the connection between people’s engagement in online social networks and their education level. I will also discuss the possible implications of this for social networks providers in South Africa.
Expenditure levels on social networks: what determines them?
In South Africa, approximately 10% of people access Internet from a PC. Mobile Internet figures are highly debated but according to a mobile service provider approximately 85% of people use Internet from their phone.
Given these estimates, when doing research on people’s use of online social networks in South Africa, it is necessary to focus on the majority of Internet users. That is, people who connect from their mobile phones and who cannot afford Internet at home.
Two interviewees described how they use online social networks as follows:
“I am on Internet all the time, when I wake up, when I come to school, in between lectures, when I am bored at lectures and when I go to sleep. All the time” (21- years old marketing student).
“I (chat) when I wake up and when I go to sleep. I don’t always have airtime but if the conversation is too good I put more” (27-years old technician at an air-con company).
The university student and the worker differ in their education level, their access to resources and their age group. What the two of them had in common, however, was their level of connection with the social networks that they use from their phone.
In practice, both of them reload their phone when their airtime runs out in the middle of a chat, and do not keep account of how much money they spend when chatting online.
This finding encouraged me to dig more into the possible drivers of behaviour amongst individuals with different cultural and socio-economic backgrounds.
What I discovered was that education levels and engagement in social networks seem to be connected.
Interviewees who had high school but not university degrees, were
Opposite to what I envisaged before the research, people with low access to resources, and less education, spent as much on their phone bill as people who earn more money.
For instance, an unemployed 22-years old who did not finish high-school, had as many devices and spent as much or more money on mobile Internet in a month as a university student.
According to the 22-years old:
“My phone costs me R50 a week, which is a lot but it is ok still. I sometimes use money that I was supposed to spend the following week on airtime but I don’t really stop doing things for doing internet. If I don’t have time for that I still go out” (22-years old, unemployed).
This guy was not the only interviewee who spent more than he planned on mobile Internet. On the contrary, this seems to be a pattern amongst the majority of people I interviewed. What recalled my attention is the fact that they did not accept that they spend a significant amount of time online, despite the fact they are the most frequent users of the social network I was researching.
This shows that engaging with people online is a priority to many, and they do not seem to mind the cost of their phone bill is not necessarily a barrier to their use of social networks.
Meeting people online: a matter of trust
University students I interviewed also engage greatly with social networks and do not keep account of how much money they spend every time they chat. Differing from the less educated group, they distrust meeting people online, and are more selective with the contacts they include in each network. They select a certain network for certain purposes. For instance, they use a network for offline contacts only, this is, people they know and friends. While they use other networks to get in touch with online contacts and new friends.
While less educated people (some finished high school and some did not), openly admitted that they use social networks so that they can meet new people, university students even if this is the case, do not admit doing so.
Students said that social networks are a mean to connect with people they already know, and admit it is unsafe to meet strangers online. This is in line with North American trends, which confirm that social networks are more effective amongst people who know each other (see Danah Boyd).
What does not fit into this trend is the behaviour of some less educated people. In my research, the main users of social networks and not very educated too, aimed at meeting new people. For instance, two non-professional female workers met their current partners through this media, and one of them also was a member of a dating site concomitantly to other social networks. Both of them used more than one social network, and regardless of having a partner at present, they are still frequent users of the network.
They said that chat rooms have rules, so even though they have partners at present, they are still able to make friends and interact with new people online: “I chat to people who want to chat to me, then I have rules”, a 22 year old said. Another interviewee said he’s got a girlfriend but he still likes meeting friends online. He said he never meets them offline, but they exchange pictures of each other.
Interviewees also referred to a certain online social network they use, which makes public their online contacts’ location, similar to a GPS. Knowing this information enhances trust amongst users because they know whether their contacts lie to them or not. Knowing people’s location also makes it easy for them to meet people in their area.
I believe that people are taking chances in meeting others personally because the time I spent observing and talking to frequent online social network users, I gathered some of them felt lonely beforehand. They now have found a way to interact with people without risking too much. They seem to get some satisfaction from online encounters, and for some, this satisfaction is real only when meeting people personally. This encounter may only happen once, but it is enough to make people feel more content.
Because my research is not quantitative I can’t determine if there is a direct relationship between lack of education, loneliness, and the way people use social networks. I can say, however, that the less educated have a different perception of the costs of social networks, and the amount of time they spend connected.
Important topics emerge from this such as possible differences or similarities in the way people use and engage with social networks. Such as the fact that regardless of their cultural or socio-economic background, people who feel alone, fulfil their need for company online. The issue is that not everybody is prepared to handle the pressure and frustration that belonging to a social network may imply.
Ultimately it is worth asking what social networks can do in order to improve people’s lives by regulating sites, and developing new ways of dealing with those who are extremely lonely.
