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Uses and gratifications of online social networking: case of South Africa
Last modified: 2010-03-24
Abstract
The past few years have seen more and more people using online social networking (OSN) communicate sites to keep in touch with friends, share information and meet new people (Topper, 2007). Recently, OSN has also become popular in South Africa (SA), with many South African internet users using Facebook (Cosme, 2007). Currently there are over 300 OSNs. With about 200 Million subscribers, MySpace is the largest OSN globally. However, Facebook is the most popular OSN amongst South Africans. Currently, there are 734,000 South African on Facebook, compared to only 3657 subscribers on MySapce (Cole, 2007; Facebook, 2008). Globally Facebook ranks as the 10th most popular OSN. Due to its popularity in South Africa, this study focuses on Facebook.
However, due to its nascence, there are few studies focusing in the use of OSN especially in developing countries. There is need therefore for studies focusing on the use of OSN in the developing countries context. An understanding of the gratifications sought and received from using OSN sites within a particular context would help designers to work towards needs based design and thereby increase user satisfactions. The purpose of this study was to explore the needs South Africans seek to gratify by the use of OSN sites and whether these needs are gratified. The question is divided into three sub-questions as follows:
• what needs do South Africans seek to gratify and fulfil through the use of Facebook?
• how are the gratifications sought fulfilled through the use of Facebook? and
• what factors influence the continued use of Facebook by South Africans?
The study used the Uses and Gratifications (U&G) as the underpinning theoretical framework. The choice of the framework was based on the unit of analysis as well as on the fact that the study focuses on media choice. Unlike most of the adoption frameworks, U&G focuses on the individual as unit of analysis (Pederson & Ling, 2003). U&G has its origin in media studies and focuses specifically on motivations for individual’s choice of media (Ruggiero, 2000). It is therefore fitting to use U&G to study the factors influencing individual use of OSN.
However, due to its nascence, there are few studies focusing in the use of OSN especially in developing countries. There is need therefore for studies focusing on the use of OSN in the developing countries context. An understanding of the gratifications sought and received from using OSN sites within a particular context would help designers to work towards needs based design and thereby increase user satisfactions. The purpose of this study was to explore the needs South Africans seek to gratify by the use of OSN sites and whether these needs are gratified. The question is divided into three sub-questions as follows:
• what needs do South Africans seek to gratify and fulfil through the use of Facebook?
• how are the gratifications sought fulfilled through the use of Facebook? and
• what factors influence the continued use of Facebook by South Africans?
The study used the Uses and Gratifications (U&G) as the underpinning theoretical framework. The choice of the framework was based on the unit of analysis as well as on the fact that the study focuses on media choice. Unlike most of the adoption frameworks, U&G focuses on the individual as unit of analysis (Pederson & Ling, 2003). U&G has its origin in media studies and focuses specifically on motivations for individual’s choice of media (Ruggiero, 2000). It is therefore fitting to use U&G to study the factors influencing individual use of OSN.
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