The Use of Mobile Phones by South African University Students

Abstract

Mobile phones are an integral part of our modern lives. This study explores the use and role of mobile phones among South African university students. Four main categories are used to examine the students' mobile phone use: reasons to use mobile phones, pattern of mobile phone use, purchasing factors, and behaviour-related issues. Through a quantitative approach data was collected from 362 participants using a survey.The key findings indicate that the main reason South African university students (mainly from the University of Cape Town) use a mobile phone is for socializing, as well as for safety and privacy purposes. Usability and price emerged as the top purchasing factors. The respondents showed some signs of addiction to their mobile phones. Differences in mobile phone use by gender were found, with female students showing increased mobile phone use for safety and socializing, interest in brand and trends, as well as signs of addiction. The findings could prove beneficial to marketers, mobile phone developers, universities, parents, and researchers exploring mobile phone adoption and usage pattern in a developing country such as South Africa.

Acceptance of ERP Systems: The Uses and Gratifications Theory Perspective

“…More recently, UGT has been successfully used to understand and explain the acceptance and use of various modern communication and computer technologies such as the Internet (Stafford, Stafford, & Schkade, 2004), mobile phones (North, Johnston, & Ophoff, 2014), social media (Petersen & Johnston, 2015), Twitter (Alajmi et al, 2016), user-generated media such as youtube (Shao, 2009), and online games (Wu, Wang, & Tsai, 2010). Similarly, UGT was used as a theoretical basis for understanding why people prefer to use a specific computer-meditated communication media such as social networking sites, instant messaging, and email (Chen, 2011, Ku, Chu, & Tseng, 2013Leung, 2013;Lim, & Ting, 2012).…”

Exploring Mobile Phone Usage at Higher Education: A Case Study of Kampala University, Uganda

“…The literature shows that students of higher institutions in developing countries use mobile phones in their daily lives for various activities including socializing, as well as for safety and privacy purposes at all times, at home, in lecture rooms and restaurants, and when driving [19].…”

“…The research results could work as a foundation for the researchers who are interested to research on as why academics in emerging economies are not integrating mobile technology in their teaching, which could be one area for further research [19].…”

The relationship between cellphone use and achievement goals in junior high school students: A cross‐lagged analysis

“…Cellphones have become popular among teenagers because the mobile nature of the cellphone allows many services to be accessed almost anywhere and at almost any time (Lepp, Barkley, & Karpinski, ). Teenagers frequently use cellphones to call (M. J. Berry & Westfall, ), send messages (e.g., North, Johnston, & Ophoff, ), send e‐mail, hold video conferences, interact on social‐networks (e.g., WeChat and Facebook; Kross et al, ), login to a microblog to watch videos and share pictures, play video games, and so on (Topalli, ). However, the academic functions (such as finding learning materials, consulting dictionaries, etc.)…”

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