Faculty of Humanities (ETDs)

Permanent URI for this communityhttps://hdl.handle.net/10539/37922

Browse

Filters

2021 - 20243

Settings

Subject: search.filters.subject.Social Media

Search Results

Now showing 1 - 3 of 3
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    The experiences of COVID-19 related lockdown and social media usage among the youth in Vosloorus, Mfundo Park, Gauteng
    (University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2024) Dlamini, Lindokuhle Sibahle; Ndimande-Khoza, Nomhle; Langa, Malose
    This research sought to understand how the COVID-19 lockdown affected young people from the Vosloorus Township as well as their social media usage throughout the lockdown. The study targeted seven individuals, both male and female, through semi-structured interviews to gain rich data for this research. The research used a qualitative approach that allowed the researcher to adequately document these individuals’ life experiences in a naturalistic and interpretive way. Additionally, the interpretive phenomenological approach (IPA) which allowed the researcher to get an in-depth understanding of how the research participants understand or interpret their world, more especially how they describe their personal experiences. The findings have shown that young people from townships have suffered significantly from the impact of the pandemic. They experienced notable psychological distress at the hands of the military and police who were sent to maintain order in the townships during the lockdown. They were forced to adapt to a new way of life which included letting go of traditional burial rituals. The social distancing measures meant that the majority of the population could not express their final goodbyes to relatives who have passed on in order to control the rate of infection. Furthermore, the social recession had a more devastating impact on these young people as they naturally thrive under social interaction for their growth and developmental trajectory. The lack of social and/or physical interaction with peers affected not only their growth, but it also affected their academic performance. Social media became the only digital tool they relied on for any form of learning and communication with peers, relatives as well as educators. Although social media provided these young people with some form of connection to the outside world, it became an eminent threat to their overall welfare. The spread of fake news about the virus caused a lot of confusion, chaos, emotional and psychological stress among these young people.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    The experiences of COVID-19 related lockdown and social media usage among the youth in Vosloorus, Mfundo Park, Gauteng
    (University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2024) Dlamini, Lindokuhle Sibahle; Langa, Malose
    This research sought to understand how the COVID-19 lockdown affected young people from the Vosloorus Township as well as their social media usage throughout the lockdown. The study targeted seven individuals, both male and female, through semi-structured interviews to gain rich data for this research. The research used a qualitative approach that allowed the researcher to adequately document these individuals’ life experiences in a naturalistic and interpretive way. Additionally, the interpretive phenomenological approach (IPA) which allowed the researcher to get an in-depth understanding of how the research participants understand or interpret their world, more especially how they describe their personal experiences. The findings have shown that young people from townships have suffered significantly from the impact of the pandemic. They experienced notable psychological distress at the hands of the military and police who were sent to maintain order in the townships during the lockdown. They were forced to adapt to a new way of life which included letting go of traditional burial rituals. The social distancing measures meant that the majority of the population could not express their final goodbyes to relatives who have passed on in order to control the rate of infection. Furthermore, the social recession had a more devastating impact on these young people as they naturally thrive under social interaction for their growth and developmental trajectory. The lack of social and/or physical interaction with peers affected not only their growth, but it also affected their academic performance. Social media became the only digital tool they relied on for any form of learning and communication with peers, relatives as well as educators. Although social media provided these young people with some form of connection to the outside world, it became an eminent threat to their overall welfare. The spread of fake news about the virus caused a lot of confusion, chaos, emotional and psychological stress among these young people.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    YouTube: Video Commercialization, Value Creation and Identity
    (University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2021-12) Dlamini, Gabby Sipho; White, Hylton
    Social media has been blamed for promoting unrealistic flashy lifestyles and an increase in influencer brand marketing. The outcome of this is said to put extreme pressure on individuals to maintain a certain lifestyle to the detriment of their self, promoting a performance of life rather than real life experiences, resulting in the breakdown of social bonds. Yet social media platforms such YouTube, Twitter, Instagram and many others are growing at considerable rates, despite all the critiques. The thesis overall questions how YouTube vloggers turn the intangible value of activities in everyday life into monetary income by attracting online audiences to their vlogs. The research is located as part of transformations taking place in late capitalism, that used to characterise the organisation of labour and, therefore, society in nineteenth and twentieth-century iterations of modern capitalist society; and the changing concepts of “private” and “public” that are described as part of the technological development and integration into our everyday lives. This thesis traces the changing structures and relationships between YouTube, YouTubers and viewers as the economy of YouTube has continued to grow. Whilst influencer brand marketing and social media reach are popularly viewed as detrimental to the individual and society, this thesis argues against this general view. Instead, I argue that in the wake of influencer marketing and the financial economies, embedded within YouTube and other social media, new ways of being and belonging are being negotiated. This thesis, using ethnographic data, focuses on these new ways of being and belonging by explaining how ideas of value, suspicion, affect, and digital footprint are factors in creating online community ties and online identities that continue inside and outside of the online space.