Abstract
The past decade has seen the mobile phone evolve and acquire additional meanings in Africa and elsewhere. From being the relatively expensive yuppie toy of the 1990s to becoming the basic necessity available on the market both as new and used today; from the voice-and-text only functions of yesteryear to the compact multimedia ‘package’ that usurps the roles of earlier technologies like the TV, radio and PC, the mobile phone has been key to the (re)shaping of society, just as its appropriation has been dialectically shaped by society. And yet most of the writing about new media in Africa focuses on the economic and technological aspects of use and access, the digital divide, and the potential of new media to help the development process and expand e-commerce, among others. All these aspects are important, but there is also scope for new research to explore the social character of the mobile device among different African communities. This article focuses on the social place of the mobile phone among a section of South African youth, namely University of Cape Town students. It employs a combination of online survey and qualitative interviews with selected undergraduate students. The article notes that the mobile phone has arguably become a key pivot around which youth culture is organised, while at the same time being appropriated and shaped creatively by the youth to address their varying interests. The study notes that although the mobile phone has not replaced traditional norms of socialisation as such, its presence has structured, and continues to structure youth’s social and academic lives.
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