Social media among African students: Recentring typologies of non-use

Abstract

Scholars are increasingly starting to engage in analysing non-use of social media among higher education students, but to date there lacks a framework within which to do so. Toward this end, this article identifies four key themes associated with not using social media to develop a typology of social media non-use. The themes are: 1) exclusion which may be owing to access problems or the social environment on social media; 2) distrust owing to difficulties surrounding authenticity, security and online collaboration; 3) distraction as a result of overwhelming or irrelevant information or communication; and 4) online discrimination. However, rather than claiming to set up a universal typology of non-use that applies to all higher education settings, we are promoting a new agenda for thinking about non-use of social media which is attentive to specific educational contexts. Basing our argument on research on international distance education students at the University of South Africa, we argue that any analysis should take a reflective and evolving stance which considers the multi-dimensional, temporally modulating nature of non-use that is sensitive to both student agency and the significance of the specific educational and geographic context. Moreover, the attention to African international distance education students is an important relocation, as thus far, typologies of social media have predominately been based on empirical case studies from ‘Western’ centres and imperatives. Placing African students centre stage realigns typologies of social media, illustrating and legitimizing the many centres from which social media non-use may be analysed and understood.