The Long Arm of Facebook – Social Media as a Tool for Survival in Informal Settlements

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Suzette Leal
Suzette Leal
1 University of Johannesburg.

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Facebook fulfils many functions. Users engage with this platform for a myriad of reasons, and these are well documented and researched. In white informal settlements in Gauteng, South Africa, residents are using Facebook for survival. In this qualitative study, participants in two white informal settlements share how they connect with donors (“sponsors”) through Facebook, and how their active Facebook “marketing” campaigns secure a steady stream of donations. This intersects the link between social capital and poverty, and it challenges the notion that “the poor” universally lacks bridging social capital -loose social ties with people in higher socio-economic brackets. Through in-depth, semi-structured interviews, participants explain how they use Facebook to increase their bridging social capital and to leverage their networks for the purpose of “getting by”.

Funding

No external funding was declared for this work.

Conflict of Interest

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Ethical Approval

No ethics committee approval was required for this article type.

Data Availability

Not applicable for this article.

Suzette Leal. 2026. \u201cThe Long Arm of Facebook – Social Media as a Tool for Survival in Informal Settlements\u201d. Unknown Journal GJHSS-C Volume 23 (GJHSS Volume 23 Issue C7): .

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Analyzing Facebook as a strategic social media tool for internal organizational retention and engagement.
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GJHSS Volume 23 Issue C7
Pg. 39- 46
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GJHSS-C Classification: (LCC): HN1-995
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January 12, 2024

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English

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Facebook fulfils many functions. Users engage with this platform for a myriad of reasons, and these are well documented and researched. In white informal settlements in Gauteng, South Africa, residents are using Facebook for survival. In this qualitative study, participants in two white informal settlements share how they connect with donors (“sponsors”) through Facebook, and how their active Facebook “marketing” campaigns secure a steady stream of donations. This intersects the link between social capital and poverty, and it challenges the notion that “the poor” universally lacks bridging social capital -loose social ties with people in higher socio-economic brackets. Through in-depth, semi-structured interviews, participants explain how they use Facebook to increase their bridging social capital and to leverage their networks for the purpose of “getting by”.

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The Long Arm of Facebook – Social Media as a Tool for Survival in Informal Settlements

Suzette Leal
Suzette Leal University of Johannesburg.

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