Facebook in the developing world: The myths and realities underlying a socially networked world

Susan P. Wyche, Cliff Lampe, Nimmi Rangaswamy, Anicia Peters, Andrés Monroy-Hernández, Judd Antin

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contribution

8 Scopus citations

Abstract

The BBC, New York Times and other media channels are abuzz with reports about Mark Zuckerberg's desire to connect everyone on the planet through social media. Missing from these online articles are reports of the realities "bottom of the pyramid" users in developing countries encounter when trying to access Facebook. This panel brings together researchers who have studied use of the popular social media site in Kenya, Namibia, Zambia, India, Mexico and the United States to discuss the opportunities and challenges that accompany adding 4 billion new users to Facebook. Our primary goal is to provide the CSCW community with an understanding of obstacles, such as persistent poverty and lack of electricity, low-income users encounter when attempting to use the site. This knowledge will help CSCW researchers think more broadly and realistically about the contexts for which they are studying and designing collaborative systems.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Title of host publicationCSCW 2014 - Companion Publication of the 17th ACM Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work and Social Computing
PublisherAssociation for Computing Machinery
Pages121-124
Number of pages4
ISBN (Print)9781450325417
DOIs
StatePublished - 2014
Externally publishedYes
Event17th ACM Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work and Social Computing, CSCW 2014 - Baltimore, MD, United States
Duration: Feb 15 2014Feb 19 2014

Publication series

NameProceedings of the ACM Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work, CSCW

Conference

Conference17th ACM Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work and Social Computing, CSCW 2014
Country/TerritoryUnited States
CityBaltimore, MD
Period2/15/142/19/14

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

  • Software
  • Human-Computer Interaction
  • Computer Networks and Communications

Keywords

  • Facebook
  • ICTD and HCI4D
  • Social media

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