Assessing Cell Phone Usage in a South African Township School

This paper reports on a pilot study, which surveyed two grade 11 classes (N = 66) at a secondary school located in a very low-income area in Cape Town, South Africa. Detailed activity-based questions indicate that virtually all respondents (97%) were found to have used a cell phone on the previous day for at least one of the measured activities. This study suggests the possibility that the majority of urban South Africans in this age group can and do access the Internet via their phones since 83% of the respondents were found to so on a typical day. This finding has significant implications for mobile media and Internet applications, as well as for future research on technology usage in similar settings. Despite the limitations of the sample size for this pilot study, the results nonetheless provide an illuminating snapshot of school-going youth at a bleak urban township school bordering an informal settlement.

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