Unlike the millennials from the industrialised world who were raised amidst an increasingly online and socially networked society, their South African counterparts at previously disadvantaged universities have some weaknesses similar to those of digital migrants. These weaknesses are caused by the limited exposure millennials in South Africa have to digital devices and Internet connectivity. In spite of these impediments, their future careers in an increasingly globalised world require them to behave like, transact and engage with full-fledged digital citizens from the global north. Digital citizenship is the ability to use technology safely, responsibly, critically, productively and civically. This raises intellectual curiosity about the extent to which the African millennial is prepared for a world that expects them to be digital citizens. This article, therefore, investigates the challenges faced by the South African millennial as they navigate an unusual route to digital citizenship. We adopted the activity theory for a mixed-methods study that consists of a survey of 148 questionnaires and 15 in-depth interviews. The findings show that while university-going millennials acquire digital literacy, their development of digital citizenship is affected by lack of mentors and access (i.e. connectivity and devices) at home and lack of soft skills training (i.e. online safety, digital etiquette and inadequate information literacy) at the university.
Each day the world is becoming increasingly digital/Your students begin to use more and more technology devices at home and in the classroom. But, are they prepared to be good digital citizens? Just as you teach your students the rules of society, it is imperative that you teach them the rules of the digital world, and how to be safe and responsible with technology. (Ribble
The digital competence of young people has been addressed in the literature from different perspectives (Howard
Drawing from scholars who suggest that technology has changed the mind of people, White (
This article will argue that what is taught must depend on the needs and background of the learner. The information age student from the global south faces different circumstances and therefore requires peculiar training. In the context of digital exposure, the term ‘millennial’ is an age-specific term that simplifies and masks the skills and resource gaps between youths from the global north and global south. The assumption that millennials have higher digital competence than their older counterparts has also been debunked by practitioners who found no link between digital nativity and digital skill (IDCL
As the well-being of people in the information age increasingly depend on the use of information and communication technology (ICT), it is important for educators and parents to promote the acquisition of digital skills. More than mere digital literacy, this paper focuses on digital citizenship as a culmination of both digital fluency and online etiquette (Batista
As part of its developmental agenda in an increasingly connected world, the United Nations has set targets for improving ICT skills and access over the next 15 years. For instance, Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) 16.10 aims to ensure public access to information. On the other hand, national governments have also set targets that are aligned with the agenda for 2030 in order to fight poverty and enhance the capabilities of their citizens. In the context of an information-driven economy, it is critical to close the ICT skills and usage capacity gap among their citizens. This calls on educators to focus on the millennials in the underprivileged parts of the developing world who constitute the majority of the young population of the world (United Nations
In 2013, the government of South Africa launched the National Development Plan 2030 with a view to address livelihoods and capacity gaps among other things (NDP 2030,
Such an endeavour commences with an in-depth understanding of the unusual road that the young people from previously disadvantaged communities must travel on their way to becoming the information age actor, dubbed the digital citizen. It is only through such an understanding that we the educators can develop digital literacy programmes and bridge the capacity gap between the millennials from previously disadvantaged communities and their counterparts in egalitarian societies.
The route taken by developing countries has been a subject of intellectual debate among digital divides scholars of information systems. That may question our intentions to expect the African digital citizens to be similar to their Western counterparts. Some scholars have problematised the notion of catching up with the West as another doomed attempt to mimic the West at the expense of following our own context development trajectories (Rapley
In order to investigate the plight of the millennials from previously disadvantaged communities in developing countries, we conducted this research at a previously disadvantaged university in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa. Most of the students at the university’s three campuses come from rural areas that lack electricity and connectivity in the homesteads. There has been a drive by the South African government to improve ICT access as part of its development plan (NDP 2030,
This article adopts AT for analysing the route that millennials from previously disadvantaged countries navigate on their way to full digital citizenship. The study is meant to unpack the way they develop digital citizenship and then analyses how it differs from the ideal situation that colleagues from privileged communities and developing countries face. It investigates the rules of the community and the tools available to the millennials who are currently enrolled at a previously disadvantaged university in the Eastern Cape province of South African. The study assumes that the difference in their development will be because of the rules at home and school, support of community at home and school, and access to tools (ICT access) at home and school. This study uses university students because they are an appropriate unit of analysis for accessing digital citizenship. This is also because they are millennials who have ICT training and constant Internet access at their universities. Because of the aforementioned reasons, it is fair to say that university students have basic qualities of digital citizens as articulated by Mossberger et al. (
The objectives of this research will be met by addressing the following question: what challenges do South African millennials experience in their attempt to become digital citizens and what steps are being taken at the home and educational institutions to develop millennials into digital citizens? To answer this question, mixed-methods research consisting of a survey and in-depth interviews was used at two university campuses in Eastern Cape province. After this introduction, the rest of the study is organised as follows: literature review, theoretical grounding, research methods, findings and discussion.
Digital literacy has been a critical issue since the advent of web 2.0 environment when Internet users became potential contributors of information instead of mere recipients. After web 2.0, the Internet occupies an unprecedented stature as a convivial tool as articulated by Ameripour, Nicholson and Newman (2010). This is because of the continuous convergence of audio, visual and textual technologies, which allows it to surpass Illich’s (
This article presents the ethical, competent, civil and safe user and beneficiary of online facilities as a digital citizen that the African millennial must endeavour to become. As digital citizenship is often confused with many digital competence terms like ‘digital nativity’, ‘digital literacy’ and ‘digital fluency’, it is important to clarify its usage in the context of this study. The terminological confusion emanates from the fact that these terms overlap and they are often associated with a demographic segment that shares age and ICT competence. These are the so called millennials or digital natives as described below. Prensky (
When Prensky invented the term ‘digital natives’, he was referring to people born after 1980 (Prensky
Another related term is ‘digital literacy’, which refers to one’s capability of, and competence or skill for using ICTs (Gilster
There is a perception that the people of the industrialised countries are more technologically savvy than those of developing countries. This is based on the fact that ICT access and skills training are better in industrialised countries than they are in developing countries. ECDL (
Against this background, the incumbent study endeavours to investigate the digital skill development process of students from previously marginalised universities who also hail from disadvantaged communities. While the literature has shown that they are less exposed than their counterparts from privileged societies, it is important to assess how their underprivileged backgrounds shape their route to digital citizenship (Counted & Arawole
Other studies have related poor digital access to the socio-historical contours of the social exclusionary policies of the apartheid era (Kruger et al.
Digital training: According to Jochems, van Merrienboer and Koper (
Access to digital tools: These are the devices, gadgets and various software and hardware artefacts that influence one’s ability to learn how to use digital platforms for engaging in social, business and educational activities in a responsible and safe manner.
The focus of information systems (IS) research has been around the potential of IS to improve people’s livelihoods using ICTs. Digital divide studies, in particular, have compiled a list of impediments to ICT-enabled development that includes poor access and low ICT literacy among other things. As given as it may seem, it is important to assess the difference between the digital literacy of millennials from the developing world and those from the industrialised world. This will, among other things, show where the gaps are and it is a critical step towards addressing these gaps through the education system.
The Australian Council for Educational Research (
Research on digital literacy in developing countries like South Africa must follow the Australian Council for Educational Research (
It must be argued that the information systems domain has been viewed as a craft that requires technical skills development. As a result, some digital literacy educators teach it as another artisanal trade arguably because their graduates are expected to be able to perform certain technical skills in the workplace. Computing or computer science can be a natural science subject which fits the positivist epistemological school. However, its application to different industries has created several new e-world domains that are not amenable to positivism (Klein & Hirschheim
The research context: The unit of analysis for this study is an institution of higher learning in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa. It is one of the institutions that were underprivileged during the apartheid era. South Africa is a sub-Saharan African country that became a democracy in 1994. The socio-political environment of the apartheid era resulted in social inequalities that still affect South Africans. It has a Gini-coefficient of 0.66–0.7, which makes it one of the most highly unequal countries in the world (Mail & Guadian
South Africa’s apartheid has been widely documented for its impact on the social progress of previously disadvantaged communities of black people. In addition to their educational (Hale
The institution under study is a previously disadvantaged university, which is mainly attended by students from impoverished rural areas in the Eastern Cape. It is situated in the former Ciskei. The Eastern Cape has been reported to have the second lowest Internet access at 37% in South Africa. At least 11.3% of the population access the Internet through educational institutions and Internet cafes, while in 2014 the majority of the population (80%) accessed the Internet through mobile devices (MyBroadband
The interaction between human actors and technology has been analysed through different socio-technical theoretical lenses by IS scholars. Of particular interest are Latour’s (
We adopt AT for the purpose of analysing the way human subjects (i.e. young people in the developing world) interact with ICT tools as they navigate a particularly unique route to digital citizenship. Activity theory also allows us to assess this interaction in a context-specific manner. Various IS scholars have emphasised the need for contextualism in unlocking the ingredients of appropriate policy and emancipation of its users (Johnson et al.
Activity theory suggests that a subject uses tools to act upon an object within the context of an activity system. It was founded in 1920 by Vygotsky, Luria and Leont; entered the Western world in the 1970s; and was popularised in the Western world by Yrjo Engestrom through his work at the Center for Research on Activity, Development and Learning (CRADLE). This theory has evolved from the first generation to the third generation and there is an ongoing effort to develop its fourth generation version. The first-generation AT is presented in
First-generation activity theory.
Second-generation activity theory.
Activity theory provides a rich analytical technique for identifying tensions and contradictions that arise from the interaction of actors in an activity system. It is based on the assumption that knowledge is built through an understanding of the interaction between tools and artefacts. In addition to the transformation that the subject inflicts upon the object, the subject is also influenced by the object, thereby forming an interactionist activity system (Kuutti
Activity: An activity is defined as a holistic and high-level construct like conducting a project (Leont’ev 1981). It is a more comprehensive process than the word ‘activity’ is understood in English. Hasan and Kazlauskas (
The subject is the doer that acts upon the object and it is the central actor in a particular activity. As a result, the researcher must analyse the activity from the subject’s perspective. The object is the deed or the thing being done. It is, therefore, the endeavour that the activity is meant to achieve. It embodies the problem situation or the objective of the activity system (Spinuzzi 2011). The tools are the apparatus that mediates between the subject and the object to bring out the outcome, which is the desired result (see
The rules are the cultural norms and regulations that determine or shape the interaction of players with the activity. These include the government policy, strategic plans of the institution or organisation, and discipline-specific rules that must be complied with by the subject in the process of executing the activity. The division of labour component captures the different roles that are performed by different players towards the execution of the activity. It is, therefore, critical to assess which player performs what role in the activity. Finally, the community represents the environment and the context under which the activity is being carried out.
Finally, the third-generation AT expands on the second-generation AT by including connected activities (see
Third-generation activity theory.
Mwanza and Engestrom (
Activity: when analysing an activity system, Mwanza and Engestrom (
Object(ive): in answer to the objective component of AT, Mwanza and Engestrom (
Subjects: this refers to who is involved in carrying out the activity. The young South African university student is the one from whose perspective the activity will be analysed. We contend that this must not be taken literally because when viewing the activity through the lens of the subject like a student, the subjects may not have an all-round view of the entire system. As a result, our analysis of critical elements that the subjects are not exposed to will lack verbatim evidence but rather the reviewers’ analysis.
Tools: this refers to by what means the subjects are performing the activity. The tools in this activity are ICTs and online platforms such as social media and commercial as well as educational sites. Our application also includes the technological gadgets like mobile phones, personal computers and Internet connectivity. This is because we view connectivity as an enabler without which communication modes like social media will be impossible.
Rules and regulations: these indicate any cultural norms, rules or regulations governing the performance of the activity. The rules and regulations include the rules that govern access to and use of ICT tools and the platforms like social media and commercial as well as educational sites. These constitute a key aspect of context as they define what is possible in the current environment.
Division of labour: this component indicates who is responsible for what when carrying out an activity and how those roles are organised. This refers to the various roles that are being played by teachers and parents and/or guardians in helping the development of digital citizenship. We also include the students on the list of the specialist actors that perform the above roles.
Community: it refers to the environment in which the activity is being carried out. The community and the environment in which the activity is unfolding are the university community and the home community. The university includes the halls of residence because they are part of the university system. The home environment is the area where the student comes from, whether village or urban, and its community, like public libraries, shopping centres and community amenities. This includes the parents, guardians, teachers, neighbours and friends of the young people.
Outcomes: It refers to what is the desired outcome of carrying out the activity. The desired outcome is for the emerging South African digital citizen to develop the full qualities of a digital citizen that are described in the next section, that is, to identify and strategise the execution of what is necessary to develop a millennial who can participate in the digital engagement safely, responsibly, productively and civically (Mwanza & Engestrom
This study used Engeström’s (
In addition to the challenges faced, we investigated the capacity gap by assessing the African millennials’ situation against the ideal expectations of the digital citizen as articulated by Al-Zahrani (
A total of 148 questionnaires were administered to students at two campuses of a university in the Eastern Cape province, followed by 15 interviews. The interview guide for the qualitative research phase was, therefore, designed for getting an in-depth understanding of the reasons behind the survey findings. While the interview phase was mainly confirmatory, it was also used for exploring the gaps emanating from the methodological limitations of the quantitative phase. This, therefore, employed the in-depth interview for conducting both exploratory and confirmatory investigations on the themes which could not be investigated using closed questions that were employed in the survey phase.
The quantitative phase uses a survey for investigating quantifiable aspects of digital citizenship through a self-assessment of digital competence on a Likert scale. It focuses on Facebook since it was found to be the main driver of Internet uptake in Africa (RIA
We attempted to design simple and easy questions to ensure that the respondents would get the same message without misunderstanding them. A pilot study was conducted in order to validate the questionnaire for user-friendliness. A few snags were identified through user feedback and these were documented and used for refining the final version of the questionnaire. The ethical approval to conduct the study was granted by the University of Fort Hare Research and Ethics Committee.
Quantitative data were analysed using SPSS, while qualitative data used a drawing from selective use of grounded theory analysis approach. The data were cleaned and imported into SPSSV24 where descriptive and test statistics were conducted using frequencies. The qualitative phase used selective coding (Glaser
This section presents the results of both the survey and interviews. In
Demographics and frequencies.
Item | Category | Frequency | % |
---|---|---|---|
Gender | Male | 65 | 43.9 |
Female | 83 | 56.1 | |
Current year of study | 1st year | 3 | 2.1 |
2nd year | 64 | 43.2 | |
3rd year | 61 | 41.2 | |
4th year | 20 | 13.5 | |
How often do you use social media? | Several times a day | 104 | 70.3 |
Daily | 13 | 8.8 | |
Several times a week | 25 | 16.8 | |
Once a week | 4 | 2.7 | |
Less than once a week | 2 | 1.4 | |
Please indicate your level of experience with social media | Excellent | 47 | 31.8 |
Good | 73 | 49.3 | |
Average | 26 | 17.4 | |
Poor | 2 | 1.4 | |
The descriptive statistics show that most of the student (55%) were aware of how the personal information posted on the Internet will be accessible to other people. Only 51% knew that the junk mail they received was related to the information they posted on Internet sites. The descriptive statistics for the rest of the questionnaire is provided in
Frequencies.
Description | Strongly agree |
Agree |
Strongly disagree |
Disagree |
||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Frequency | % | Frequency | % | Frequency | % | Frequency | % | |
I am not concerned about the privacy of the information about me that is posted on Facebook. | 18 | 12.2 | 24 | 16.2 | 49 | 33.1 | 53 | 35.8 |
I feel confident that I have the skills to protect my privacy on Internet sites. | 17 | 11.9 | 42 | 29.4 | 34 | 23.8 | 50 | 35.0 |
It is very important to me that I am aware and knowledgeable about how my personal information will be used when I post it on Facebook. | 58 | 39.2 | 67 | 45.3 | 9 | 6.1 | 8 | 5.4 |
I am not aware of how my social network may use information that I post on my profile. | 25 | 16.9 | 69 | 46.6 | 41 | 27.7 | 11 | 7.4 |
I know the extent to which my information will be accessible to other people. | 22 | 15.2 | 57 | 39.3 | 18 | 12.4 | 47 | 32.4 |
Advertisers use my social network profile information to send me ads targeted to me. | 29 | 19.6 | 55 | 37.2 | 44 | 29.7 | 17 | 11.5 |
I would not mind if an employer saw what I posted on my profile. | 33 | 22.3 | 51 | 34.5 | 33 | 22.3 | 29 | 19.6 |
I am careful about the pictures I post of myself on my profile. | 99 | 66.9 | 37 | 25.0 | 7 | 4.7 | 5 | 3.4 |
I read the privacy statement provided by the site before I enter personal information. | 22 | 15.7 | 58 | 41.4 | 19 | 13.6 | 41 | 29.3 |
This section presents a summary of the results of the qualitative research phase in
Quotes form interviews divided per variable
Variable | University | Home |
---|---|---|
Subject | ‘I am from a very small town called Flagstaff. I grew up in rural areas and I came here when I was 19 years and there was a course for computers in my first year and that was the first time I learned to use a computer’. (Ai1, Female, 19) ‘I was 19 years in 2012 and I learned for the first time in university. There was an orientation day and we were supposed to write a test during our first-year registration. I wrote the test and failed but then it was just a test to check if I am able to use the Internet and computer and then I learned by myself’. (Ti4, Male, 20) ‘I haven’t been formally trained but just from my general knowledge I am able to identify valuable information just by looking at the source of the information and the content of the information’. (Si8, Female, 20) ‘No I have never been taught on how to buy online or how to treat others; I have bought something online and I wouldn’t really say I have been taught. On how to protect myself or my own privacy because I think for me it comes with what you want to be exposed to on the Internet and I just limit the information I put on the Internet especially about myself, so I would say for me it has always been a self-taught skill’. (Si5, Male, 19) |
‘… No, I got my first smartphone this year and at home I had my first phone when I was doing grade-10 called V360 for calls and text messages’. (Ai1, Female, 19) ‘There is a huge gap and need for training. If I can give you an example of my Dj career, some other things that DJs write are too offensive…because those guys are illiterate.’ They just know how to play music and they can’t really deal with criticisms from social media and other people. It’s like you are running a business and so some people will always complain that they don’t like this and that…and these guys would take it negatively but me I would always take it differently because I have got those skills’. (Mi3, Male, 21) ‘I have never used the Internet to buy anything, you know when you are not used to these digital things and you hear people saying there are scams in buying things online, then you become scared even when you want to buy …’. (Si8, Female, 20) ‘Yes, she did teach me and even at school we were taught that we must not just use the Internet anyhow because one day you are going to get a job and they will check your character on the Internet and even Facebook. Then it will be difficult for you if they find something negative to be hired for certain job position or even at all because of what you once posted on the Internet’. (Mi3, Male, 21) |
Subject conclusions | Learned Internet at university No e-commerce exposure No information literacy training |
Late smartphone adopter No digital etiquette training No e-commerce exposure Warned to be modest on social media |
Rules | ‘… they restricted us to not download movies or listening to music online. Well it’s good for the institution but for us, it’s not because sometimes when studying we need to take a break and listen to music or watch something to refresh’. (Ki14, Female, 20) ‘… there are rules which one has to agree to when logging in to the university networks and these rules govern what you can do here. The rules state that you can’t do things like visit porn sites, downloading movies and other stuff’. (Pi15, Male, 22) ‘We are allowed to use our devices in class as long they don’t disturb lectures’. (Mi3, Male, 21) ‘… we are only allowed to do things that are regarded as part of school work and doing things like watching movies online is forbidden’. (SI9, Female, 19) ‘I think the Wi-Fi needs to be improved, the software needs to be updated to the current versions, and also they should allow us to use some services like torrents. We should be allowed to enter the labs with our own laptops as currently, they won’t allow us because they don’t want people stealing the laptops in the labs.’ (Si9, Female, 19) |
‘No there are no rules and that is because they have no much knowledge about the Internet and the only thing that they would say is that I am old enough to know not to do something that would be offensive to other people or too private. Also that you can stay on the phone while you have something you should be doing or you can’t be on the phone while eating, so the rules are such things only’. (Si8, Female, 20) ‘Yes, I think there are rules [ It depends because we are not allowed to be on our phone while dining as a family or during the sleeping time but our parents don’t really have much control on that so there are no rules I can say’. (Ti3, Male, 22) ‘… not rules but WhatsApp is always an issue with parents when you always on it but then when they refuse me WhatsApp I can always go out and be with my friends and do my WhatsApp, as long as I have done all my duties and back in the house at right time’. (Ai1, Female, 19) |
Rules conclusions | Access to bad sites is blocked Not allowed to download drama series Allowed to use own devices |
No parental rules about Internet use Excessive use and use during dinner |
Community | ‘No, I don’t have friends who know better than me in using the internet … Yes, they [Lecturers] do give me enough information I need because most of the things I know is because of them’. (Ti3, Male, 22) I learned here a lot from my friends, I didn’t learn anything from ICT and lecturers because even though there is a computer lab in my department we were told to do books when we want to access it’. (Ai1, Female, 19) ‘Yes, I had two friends: one doing a B.Comm General and the other Economics. We used to do CLT practical together and since I was struggling with computers a lot they helped me a lot’. (Ki14, Female, 20) ‘… but I have friends who still post their nude pictures online or share derogatory statement online which are things that may cost them in the future because I heard employers look at your online activities. I think they need to be taught more about avoiding things like that’. (Pi15, Male, 22) ‘Yes, I remember very well the lecture was by Dr N. She spoke about cyberbullying and that we should respect others. She also spoke about restricting the amount of information you give out online and on social media to avoid cyber bullies’. (Ki14, Female, 20) |
‘In the rural areas there is really nothing much you can learn there; there’s not much support they can give you like in my rural community most people are illiterate and even my own parents are not educated, so they don’t really know much about those things to be able to offer any support’. (Mi3, Male, 21) ‘Specifically using the internet I was never taught at home, using Microsoft I was taught that at a community centre but unfortunately they didn’t have internet; they were just teaching basic Microsoft Word and Excel. Accessing internet there was no one to teach, you would go to the internet café and get someone to assist you by connection, how you do it is your struggle, no one teaches you’. (Mi2, Male, 22) ‘In rural areas one thing is that people who have already acquired skills should be able to teach those who don’t have the skills, but; they move out of the village to the city and we are left alone to hustle the skills on our own; when they come back, we have already got the skills on our own and some of them become very interested to assist there and there in improving what we already have’. (Mi2, Male, 22) ‘In my township community some of my friends have access to these things and I can go to their homes and be able to access the internet as much as I want unlike at my home where it is limited and restricted by rules and I can get also skills and knowledge from them by asking of what I don’t know and they tell me because they are much informed’.’(Mi3, Male, 21) |
Community conclusions | Educators Friends and/or fellow students |
Parents, siblings; friends Internet cafes, libraries |
Division of labour | ‘They [ ‘[ ‘Lecturers also do support like they give us support on how to access information especially about certain projects that they give us.’ (Ni6, Female, 20) ‘The tutors move around helping the struggling students but often we are taught as a group and some people can’t understand things quickly and the class may even end and they still do not understand what we were learning.’ (Si9, Female, 19) |
‘[ ‘[ ‘[ ‘[ |
Division of labour conclusions | Technical support from ICT Helpdesk Academic content from lecturers Practical assistance from fellow students |
Parents provide funding Siblings and friends give assistance Internet cafes and libraries provide access |
Tools | ‘… here at school, I have free Wi-Fi all the time… So on a daily basis, I would say I get about 9–10 h of internet access’. (Si8, Female, 20) ‘… almost 90% of my classmates have laptops and 99.5% have smartphones’. (Ai1, Female, 19) |
‘At home [ ‘Flexibility is serious caution and the fact that you can’t compare desktop with the phone then you can’t really be flexible on the phone as you would do on a desktop’. (Mi2, Male, 22) ‘We have limited resources when it comes to technology in the Eastern Cape and the teachers seem to not take technology serious and they do not dedicate time to teach students how to use computers. There is also a lack of internet connectivity. I started to hear about Wi-Fi when I got to university’. (Ki14, Female, 21) |
Tools conclusions | Computers Smartphones Free Wi-Fi |
Smartphones Data Bundles |
Activity outcomes: The university and the home systems are complementing each other to produce an incomplete digital citizen who has more technical skills than digital etiquette. This is because of inadequacies on both university and home communities (see
University and home activity systems.
The university activity system: It is teaching technical skills for students to be productive during their university education and future work.
The home activity system: This system is funding the student’s education and giving no further assistance than the values and the mores that are inculcated during the student’s upbringing. It is failing, however, to complement the skills developed at university because of inadequate connectivity, mentorship and lack of devices in some cases.
Tools: The ICT tools that are available to the students at home are fewer than what they have in the university activity system. In addition to the personal devices like laptops and smartphones that some of them also have at home, they also have university Wi-Fi and computer labs at their disposal.
One participant puts it:
‘At home [
There is, therefore, no continuity of access which is essential for continuous digital exposure.
Rules: The home activity system has no rules that control the online activity of the millennials. The rules at home tend to regulate when not to use ICTs rather than the student’s online behaviour, as one participant advised:
‘No, there are no rules, and that is because they have no much knowledge about the internet and the only thing that they would say is that I am old enough to know not to do something that would be offensive to other people or too private. Also that you cannot stay on the phone while you have something you should be doing or you can’t be on the phone while eating, so the rules are such things only.’ (Mi3, Male, 21)
The findings show less enabling actors in the home compared to the university activity system. For instance, very few participants had any influence from friends, neighbours and institutions like libraries while they are at home. This is because of the lack of capacity, as well as rural to urban migration, as respondent Mi2 put it:
‘In rural areas one thing is that people who have already acquired skills they would be able to teach those who don’t have; they move out of the village to better city and we are left alone to hustle the skills on our own.’ (Mi2, Male, 22)
Participant Si10 who comes from an urban community had a different experience:
‘I had a neighbour who was studying engineering at Ibika. He was advanced in technology, so I used to follow him. He owned a computer and a smartphone, and I was always with him. However, I was young then, and all I knew about technology was watching movies on his laptop. He was the person who motivated me to get an interest in the computer world.’ (Si10, Male, 22)
As discussed later, the university system had technical training, helpdesk backup and peer assistance.
Unlike the university, which had an ICT helpdesk, lecturers and peers that can help, the home activity system had some parental guidance and little technical help from a few libraries and Internet cafes.
Participant Mi2:
‘Specifically using the internet I was never taught at home, using Microsoft I was taught that at a community centre but unfortunately they didn’t have internet; they were just teaching basic Microsoft Word and Excel. Accessing internet there was no one to teach, you would go to the internet café and get someone to assist you with connection; how you do it is your struggle, no one teaches you.’ (Mi2, Male, 22)
In this section, we discuss the findings presented in the previous section in line with the objectives of this study. Our analysis shows that the challenges that are being faced by the South African millennials in their endeavour to become digital citizens emanate from university curriculum, as well as their historical background and socio-economic situation. While our research findings show that they must make do with inadequate Internet access at home, their digital skills are acceptable. This is because they are compelled to acquire digital literacy at university and also because they are active on social media. They, however, lack digital citizenship qualities, for example, the ability to protect their personal privacy on Internet sites. About 81% rated their social media experience as excellent or good, while only 41% of them were confident in their ability to protect themselves on Internet sites. They also need to teach themselves the soft skills (like digital etiquette) and e-commerce that they are not being taught at university. Our research revealed that while the university system has scope for incubating good digital citizenship, the current syllabus, unenforced rules and poor access on the home front make it difficult for millennials to develop digital citizenship.
The barriers that inhibit the development of digital citizenship.
Third-generation AT enabled a comparative investigation of the home and university systems that are expected to complement each other in the process of developing South Africa’s millennials into digital citizens. The research findings show tensions and shortcomings between the two systems. These tensions and some constraints – socio-economic and historical contextual factors – have a negative impact on the development of digital citizenship. The university system was technocentric and the home system had an indirect impact on ethics. Instead of collaborating in both training and provision of technology, that is, connectivity and ICT devices, we found that the home community did not allow the students to perpetuate the technical training acquired at university. On the other hand, the university was not enhancing the ethical values from home. This is because of the lack of mentors and digital tool (i.e. devices and connectivity) at home, as well as the technical focus of the university curriculum.
As a result, the combination of both systems failed to produce digital etiquette. This leaves it all to chance as interviewee Mi3 put it:
‘I think it is a state of mind because, on my Facebook, some people would post things that I feel they are offensive to others. To me, I think it is a different story which goes with who you are and whether or not you care about other people. So I wasn’t really taught how to behave on the internet, I think I do my best and maybe I am not doing right according to other people.’ (Mi3, Male, 21)
The contradiction within the home activity system is that the student has morally unfettered access without any cyber ethics rules at home where their ubuntu (humanness) is expected to come from. Olinger, Britz and Olivier (
As the interviewee Ki14 put it:
‘at home, there are no rules they don’t mind if I’m using my laptop.’ (Ki14, Female, 20)
We found that this is because the parents have no capacity to monitor the student’s online behaviour as they do on offline platforms. The irony is that where connectivity allows, the students are freer at home to do what they cannot do at university; yet the home is supposedly the bastion of ubuntu. These contradictions in the activity system (Engestrom & Sannino
The university activity system was found to be playing a significant role in providing basic skills, exposure to mentors and unlimited access. The university was, however, lacking in the development of millennials who can use technologies responsibly, safely, critically, productively and civically as expected from digital citizens (Ribble
As participant Pi15 advised, they were never taught to post positive content. He does it because his sister was once raped:
‘I can’t say I have been taught but I would like to believe some of the content I post on my twitter is productive. For example, when I post about things like rape because it is a subject I care about sharing since my sister was once raped.’ (Pi15, Male, 22)
Another respondent Ti4 expected students to learn digital etiquette on their own. She suggested that those who suffer cyberbullying are unaware of the tools provided by social media platforms. In her words, she said:
‘… it’s just that people are ignorant, for example, if you are using Facebook, it tells you that this is how you should conduct yourself, like if someone posts something that I don’t like then I have a right to report it so it can be removed. So everyone who is using the internet knows, it is just that they are reluctant to learn about how to conduct themselves.’ (Ti4, Male, 20)
An analysis of the university’s rules shows the contradiction of willingness to tackle cyber mischief, as well as an unwillingness to teach their students to confront it and overcome it when they get exposed on unrestricted platforms like their own devices. In other words, they impose rules that address the symptoms without developing the student’s capacity to withstand the online vices that they will face outside the university network. By blocking access to unacceptable sites without teaching civility and responsibility, they are missing the opportunity to prepare their students for the unbridled access that they have on the home system. This may arrest some contagion at the university, but it forfeits the opportunity to teach digital citizenship, more so because there is no university curriculum that teaches digital etiquette.
Our research reveals that the ethics and etiquette that the participants purport to possess emanate from their upbringing and less from formal training. There are, however, some isolated degree programmes that were found to be instilling values that may foster digital civility in the students. This includes a course in nursing and another in information systems.
A nursing student Mi3 said:
‘We are also taught in our courses in nursing departments how to interact with other people and not harm them’. (Mi3, Male, 21)
An information systems student also advised that they had learnt about personal security and cyberbullying:
‘… yes I remember very well the lecture was by Dr Ni. She spoke about cyberbullying and that we should respect others. She also spoke about restricting the amount of information you give out online and on social media to avoid cyber bullies.’ (Mi3, Male, 21)
As can be seen in
The university system provides basic aspects of literacy through two courses, namely CLT and Basic Computer Literacy. At the university of (name withheld), CLT is a compulsory module that contributes credits to the university degree, whereas Basic Computer Literacy is an optional course that one can skip by simply writing the exemption test. However, if one skips BCL there are no repercussions as it has no credits. Both courses prepare the student for the technical skills that enable the students to do their assignments on computer irrespective of the fact that they had no prior knowledge of computing. While it may give room for computer literate students to avoid the BCL module, there is no clearly defined route to exemption, just as there is no enforcement for those who need to take both CLT and BCL.
The students were found to have different levels of computer skills. For instance, one student, Si5, advised that she was far behind colleagues from better off backgrounds. In her own words, she said:
‘There was a huge gap … they had that privilege of knowing how to use a computer, for example, typing and me I still had to first familiarise myself with the keyboard. … they knew how to use the internet which I did not know, so there was a lot of catching up on my side even though we were of same age I was way behind with knowledge of computer use and internet.’ (Si5, Male, 19)
The university community was also found to have a vast capacity to develop digital citizenship if its resources were coordinated to do so. It has educators, ICT helpdesk technicians and fellow students who can foster the development of the millennials’ digital fluency. These aspects of the university activity system need to be harnessed for developing digital citizenship. For instance, we found that students help each other informally. Respondent Mi2 said:
‘Actually, some of them (friends) learned a lot of things from me because I am curious by nature and so that’s how I know things then I shared the skills I got, I would say I have learnt some things from them and gave them some things. We teach each other.’ (Mi2, Male, 22)
This opportunity for the cross-pollination of skills in the university could be formalised through the teaching and learning centre where students work as tutors.
The ICT helpdesk also had the underutilised capacity to help develop digital skills. According to respondent Ni6, they were helpful:
‘They [
This potential was not being utilised by all who could benefit from it. For instance, respondent Mi2 a fourth-year student, had never benefited from the ICT helpdesk:
‘… the ICT staff I have never been engaged with them for help with internet or computer use, I just know they work with these digital staff around campus and I don’t know anything about them having to do with students.’ (Mi2, Male, 22)
The university activity system would realise its full capacity by advising all students about the role of the ICT helpdesk.
We also found that the students lacked the skill to conduct e-commerce, which is an important aspect of digital citizenship. This was, however, a rare exception of some IS students. The rest of the participants had not received any training to buy and sell on the Internet. Most of the respondents had not bought anything online. One student confirmed that he had taught himself how to buy online. About 59% suggested that they feared financial loss on the Internet.
This was confirmed by an interviewee, Si8:
‘not yet but I am looking to buy something right now, but I am still sceptical because I don’t trust it that much’. (Si8, Female, 20)
This suggests that the key aspects of digital citizenship could only be developed by chance rather than through formal training.
Our comparison of the home and the university activity systems showed that the home activity system suffers from the lack of access and low exposure to other Internet users that students can learn from. Unlike the university where they have friends and lecturers to help with skills training, at home most have no computer literate friends who can mentor them. Their parents are not computer literate and they lack Internet access. As stated by one participant:
‘… [
In terms of rules of Internet access and usage, we found that there were no rules on the home activity systems, basically because the parents are totally uninvolved in the children’s online activity. There were some rules on the university system which forbade them to access illegal sites and to watch television (TV) series. The rest of the forbidden sites are blocked by the system.
This article makes its contribution by highlighting the challenges that the African millennials face on their way to digital citizenship. While the home activity system has socio-historical challenges, the university has an opportunity to refocus and help reduce the challenges that their students face. By focusing on digital skills while marginalising information literacy and digital etiquette, the educators are upholding temporary tools above their permanent purpose. Such technological determinism is downplaying the ephemeral nature of technologies and the need to inculcate transferable skills that will help the student to safely and civically process information in a continuously evolving information age with new cyberspace vices and new technological devices. Teaching the millennials about how to use technology without teaching them online safety, information literacy and civility will make them victims and perpetrators of cybercrime. Their productivity in the information age jobs will be lower than expected as they suffer from the effect of cybercrime. This calls for a revision of ICT literacy training modules to include the digital fluency that is required for good digital citizens. It also calls for the need to change teaching strategies by using learners to support other millennials in the communities of both the university and the home activity systems.
This research was conducted among university students. While they have the age and access which are expected of digital citizens, their situation cannot be uncritically inferred to the rest of South African millennials. The findings of this research, therefore, need to be read with due cognisance that university students have better training and better access than other millennials who come from the same backgrounds.
Future research must investigate how the ubuntu cultural virtues can be transferred to the digital front. It must also use practical testing exercises for assessing both the information literacy and digital wisdom (Prensky
This article has operationalised the use of Engeström’s (
The authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationships which may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article.
W.C. conceptualised the study and collected the data. L.C. conceptualised the study, did the data analysis and assisted with the final editing of the manuscript. S.T. conducted the literature review, wrote the manuscript and assisted with the editing of the manuscript.