The effects of social media on relationship patterns among adolescents: A study of students in three selected high schools of Alice in Eastern Cape, South Africa
- Authors: Kalasaru, Onai Ronald https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4984-4250
- Date: 2014-11
- Subjects: Online social networks , Mass media and children
- Language: English
- Type: Master's theses , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10353/25085 , vital:63966
- Description: Technology with the aid of the internet and social media has brought so much into the world, it has managed to reach and develop almost the entire world and this includes remote areas of Sub-Saharan countries like South Africa. These are the least developed and usually the last regions of the world to receive technology. It should be noted that most of the times, technology is bound to make an impact as people use it and this was the motive behind this study which aimed at assessing the effects of socialised media on adolescents who are the future of South Africa. In the study, the researcher aims at discovering whether the use of social media engines among adolescents affects the ways with which they relate with one another. The study which adopted a quantitative methodology was conducted on matriculating students from three randomly selected schools from within and surrounding town of Alice in Eastern Cape South Africa. Respondents were sampled conveniently and data was collected through self-administered questionnaires. From the results and conclusions, it showed that technology has reached South Africa’s remote areas and young people like adolescents have many uses for it. However, they proved that even though they now have technology in form of the internet and social media, it does not affect the ways with which they form and maintained social relations. This means that technology does not have a significant impact in the relationship patterns of adolescents in remote areas of South Africa. , Thesis (MSoc) -- Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities, 2014
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Trust and identity management within online social networks
- Authors: Galpin, Ryan
- Date: 2010-12
- Subjects: Online social networks , Data privacy
- Language: English
- Type: Master's theses , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10353/25972 , vital:64638
- Description: Online social networking is one of the largest Internet activities, with almost one third of all daily Internet users visiting these websites. Characteristics of this environment are issues relating to trust, user privacy and anonymity. Service providers are focused primarily on acquiring users, and little attention is given to the effective management of these users within the social networking environment. This study serves to evaluate if proper identity management processes and controls are needed to protect users and their informational privacy, while establishing a higher degree of user trust for other users and the system. Design Science is followed as the primary methodology, with the final outcome being a proposed artefact. Through a detailed experiment, an evaluation of the controls and processes exhibited by Facebook and MySpace was conducted. The areas of evaluation were identified through the Vulnerability Mitigation and Assessment (VAM) methodology. The findings of this experiment, together with the secondary data reviewed, form the proposed artefact, which is a set of controls aimed at increasing trust and privacy through the effective implementation of these controls and identity management processes. , Thesis (MA) -- Faculty of Management and Commerce, 2010
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