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An article on Social Networking among Mauritian student population The past decade has witnessed the widespread propagation of communication means in the Mauritian Society. There has been the successive introduction of mobile phones, cable television, internet connection facilities with wifi, satellite tv, iphones and other igadgets. The young generation is so taken up with following up technological trends that they spend a lot of time trying, manipulating and thinking about these innovative communication tools. The ease of connectivity via high speed internet has created new avenues for the young people to create network of friends at any time of the day. The can connect with groups of friends at home, at school, in the bus, at the beach and in fact everywhere. In front of this tsunamic wave, parents and educators are feeling overwhelmed. In Mauritius there has been no empirical research on this phenomenon. We do not pretend to bring empirical data to this field in this article but rather a short reflection on the way Mauritian students are using social networking and to what extent has this phenomenon gone in our schools and universities. The rapid adoption of social network sites by teenagers in Mauritius and in many other countries around the world raises some important questions. Why do teenagers flock to these sites? What are they expressing on them? How do these sites fit into their lives? What are they learning from their participation? Are these online activities like face-to-face friendships or are they different, or complementary? The goal of this article is to have a reflection on these questions and explore their implications for youth identities. How youth engage through social network sites today provides long-lasting insights into identity formation, status negotiation, and peer-to-peer sociality. |
