I. Introduction

The consumption of mobile phones by youth has been highly reported in sociological literature [1-3]. Research indicates that the mobile phone is useful in many ways including for communication [4], multimedia and social networking [3, 5, 6], and as a cultural device [7-10]. Although empirical studies of mobile phone consumption among youth have been undertaken in various regions, there remains a deficiency of similar studies in other economically developing regions such as Botswana, where youth live lives separate from their counterparts in other regions. Goggin [9] recommends that research of the interactive relationship between youth and mobile phones should be undertaken in the economically developing regions where youth’s lives are impacted by social and cultural factors which are different from those in the developed societies. Correspondingly, Nilan [11] recommends that when doing such research, scholars should ensure that their research agendas are made specific to the socio-economic and cultural contexts in the regions that they focus their studies in. Therefore, with the aim to add to the already existing literature, this article considers the habitual practice of texting among urban youth in Botswana. The focus of the article is to examine youth’s consumption of mobile phones from a developing country perspective.

II. Mobile phone texting – literature review

Texting on the mobile phone has been considered as one of the most common activities amongst youth in New Zealand [12], Pakistan [13], Malaysia [14], the USA [10, 15], Nigeria [16] and India [17]. Indications are that text messaging is an inexpensive and cost effective practice compared to voice calls, hence many young people have developed a strong penchant to it. For instance, using text messaging students at Otago University have maintained strong bonds in their social networks [12]. In Pakistan, college students have benefited from bundles of unlimited text messaging offers from local network operators in their country, which they then use to connect with family and friends who live far away from where they attend school [13]. For youth in Malaysia, texting forms a large part of mobile phone consumption and is regarded as a convenient form of communication [18]. According to Suki [8], as young people in Malaysia engage with social networks such as Facebook and Twitter on their smart phones, they maintain perpetual connectedness between them and their loved ones including family, and friends. In another study conducted among students in Nigeria, Utulu and Alonge [16] report that many young people owned and used mobile phones to communicate, browse the Internet and exchange information online.

As indicated in the studies above, youth in various countries engage with their mobile phones through texting, which include sending text messages, social networks and browsing the Internet. Focusing on youth in Botswana, this particular study seeks to address the following research question: As part of mobile phone consumption among youth in Botswana, what is the relevance of texting?

III. Methodology

This studyFootnote 1 was conducted in Botswana using non-participant observations and diaries. Throughout the study, I was based in Gaborone where I conducted non-participant observation and follow-up interviews (semi-structured) with fourteen students for a period of three months. Of the fourteen participants, six studied at the University of Botswana (UB), and four each studied at the Gaborone Institute of Professional Studies (GIPS) and the Institute of Health Sciences (IHS). All participants in the study were recruited by posting advertisements in their colleges and University inviting them to participate. The final participants were sampled based on the following: they lived in Gaborone, were aged between eighteen and twenty-five, and owned and used mobile phones. During non-participant observation, I was not interested in eavesdropping on participant’s conversations on the mobile phone, but rather, I observed from a distance how each interacted with their device. I also took field notes in order to keep a record of what I observed. According to Emerson et al [19], taking field notes is a way of capturing and preserving meanings about the people being studied. To verify data from the participants, I also conducted follow-up interviews with some of them to probe them about their decision-making processes and behaviours during the non-participant observations.

In addition to non-participant observations, participants were also given diaries to record their interactive relationship with the mobile phone over a period of a month. The diaries were also useful in cases where observing participants during voice communication on mobile phones seemed impractical and unethical. In the diaries, the participants were required to record their own activities, thoughts and reflections based on their experiences associated with their use of mobile phones on a daily basis. Accordingly, other activities that participants were required to record in their diaries included the number of calls and text messages that they made and received on their mobile phones in a particular day.

IV. Botswana youth and their penchant to texting

Ling [1], and Caron and Caronia [20] have noted thatglobally, the mobile phone affords people the opportunity to connect with others and remain in regular contact with them through texting. As alluded to in the introduction section, the study also had a focus to investigate this aspect of mobile phone consumption and found that, in addition to receiving calls, young people in Botswana use mobile phones to exchange text messages with other mobile phone users, engage in online social networks and surf the Internet.

An analysis of the fourteen diaries, in which participants recorded information about their use of the mobile phone over a period of a month, revealed that out of all the activities available on the mobile phone, text messaging was the most prevalent among youth in Botswana. For instance, the records in the diary of PakoFootnote 2, a 22-year-old student from GIPS, showed that during the month of January 2013 he sent 73 text messages and received 162. Of the 235 messages on his mobile phone, 92 were messages exchanged between himself and his family, relatives and friends during his 22nd birthday, which fell on 16 January 2013. Other text messages were sent by his classmates about meetings for assignments as part of their studies at college. There were also text message exchanges between himself and his girlfriend, advertisements and promotional messages from Mascom, while other messages included the notifications he received while conducting mobile banking transactions after receiving his monthly stipend. As also recorded in his diary, Pako would often use his mobile phone to check the time, take photographs, browse the Internet and engage in online social networks. Pako’s diary and those of other youth participants in this study indicated strongly that once young people in Botswana adopt the mobile phone, they then develop a habit to texting as part of the process of Domestication.

The habitual practice of texting on mobile phones among young people in Botswana was also forthcoming during the non-participant observation aspects of my research. Consider the following extract taken from field notes which I recorded during the time I observed Rati, a twenty-three year old Bachelor of Science (BSc) student at UB:

After about twelve minutes of observing Rati, I watched her reach for her pencil case and take out a mobile phone, glancing at its screen for a few seconds and then placing it on top of the table. My first impression was that she was checking the time on her mobile phone, but as she would later tap on the device several times, I then realised that she was either exchanging text messages or engaging on social networks with another mobile phone user. This incident went on for a while, such that once every three to four minutes she checked her mobile phone, looked at its screen and then tapped on its keypad for a minute or so. I could imagine how on that day, text messaging interrupted her study. After about thirty minutes, Rati’s phone rang signalling the arrival of a call. She quickly picked it up, answered it and then collected her belongings and hurriedly left the library (UB library, March 2013, around 10 am).

A follow-up interview with Rati revealed that during the time I observed her at UB library, she was exchanging text messages with her boyfriend who wanted to meet up with her before her afternoon class that day. When Rati chatted with her boyfriend through text-messages, she could decide when to read and respond to the incoming text messages while also studying. However, the arrival of the mobile phone call seemed to have persuaded her to leave the library and meet up with her boyfriend. This indicates that although each text message requires a response, each person in the conversation can choose to respond to the text message at the time they want to, compared to a voice call when two people engage in synchronised conversation, and the one person persuades the other to take action. Rati emphasised this point further when she mentioned that at times when her boyfriend sent her a text message she would not respond to it immediately. She also insisted that sometimes she would lie to her boyfriend that she did not see the message. According to Rati, text messaging was the most convenient way of connecting with her boyfriend since they could not see each other often, as she lived in the university premises while her boyfriend lived at another section of the city. She also pointed out that they usually exchanged lots of text messages whenever they wanted to discuss issues about their relationship, and only resorted to voice calls when they had urgent issues to discuss.

In another example, I observed Thabo, a 25-year-old student at UB exchanging text messages when also engaged in other activities such as walking across the school premises, queuing to withdraw some money from an automatic teller machine (ATM) and walking away from a supermarket at the student centre. Interestingly for Thabo, he would use his mobile phone to exchange text messages when his friends were around. During a follow-up interview with Thabo he stated, “most of the time, I exchange text messages with my customers who have ordered caps, t-shirts and sneakers that I import from overseas countries and sell locally.” Thabo also mentioned that he usually exchanged text messages with his suppliers overseas to confirm payments for goods, and to enquire about and trace the orders. According to Thabo, since his business required him to contact many people from his mobile phone, he had decided to use text messages, as they are inexpensive compared to voice calls.

The above findings revealed that in general, young people in Botswana exchanged text messages to communicate about social issues such as birthday wishes and to enrich family and friendship ties. In particular, the female participants in this study declared that they frequently connected with their peers through texting when they organised socio-cultural events such as birthday parties, house warmings and bridal and baby showers which, as I already noted above, are common among youth in Botswana. Additionally, other young people exchange text messages of love to their intimate partners as they enrich their relationships. Other young people exchange text messages with their family, friends and relatives with a view to curbing problems of boredom and loneliness while they are away from them as a result of rural-urban migrations. Students connect with each other through texting to share ideas during group studies as part of their learning, whereas other young people exchange text messages with their colleagues at workplaces to enrich friendship relations.

Although the participants in this study were not strictly required to do so, some of them recorded the text-message conversations from their mobile phones in their diaries. An incidental finding demonstrated in some of the participants’ diaries was that while texting, each conversation often consisted of several short message exchanges instead of one long message. While being asked to discuss the importance of sending text messages, the participants in this study suggested that texting is cheap, spontaneous and can be done quickly while also being involved with other activities. In that regard, some of the participants offered the following observations during follow-up interviews with them:

Texting is done quickly and you don’t want to bore the recipient with long messages. You want to send a message that is straight and to the point (Puni, 25, female, IHS).

Texting is not a letter where you try to write all the points for the other person to see. Once the person you text replies to your message, the conversation flows.

Constant text exchanges bridge the gap between the two of you, and it’s like the other person in the conversation is there with you (Tebo, 20, male, UB).

The above viewpoints imply that despite the geographic proximity between two people, when they engage in a conversation through texting, the conversation normally flows as if they are together in one place.

Lin and Tong [21] also propose that text messaging is a common means through which young people globally, keep in touch. Moreover, as noted by Caron and Caronia [20], texting is significantly influenced by factors such as income. Young people in Botswana also regard texting as a ‘simple, inexpensive and personalised’ way to communicate with other mobile phone users in an obtrusive manner. For instance, the student participants in this study acknowledged that exchanging text messages is an ideal option over making voice calls because most of them have tight budgets as a result of limited stipends from their academic sponsors to purchase goods such as food, toiletries and basic materials while at university. Hence, they do not have money to frequently make calls on their mobile phones. As part of their prepaid contracts, young people in Botswana usually buy sufficient airtime, which they would normally reserve for many exchanging text messages with friends. The participants in this study also mentioned that sometimes they benefited from free text messaging promotional offers from local network operators, such as texting during night times when it is cheaper, exchanging text messages with other mobile phone users who subscribed within the same network and using free text messaging applications such as WhatsApp and Blackberry Messenger (BBM). These features underscore Broege’s [12] point about the effectiveness of text messaging as an economical means to connect with other peers.

Furthermore, as considered by many young people in this study, especially college and university students, making calls from the mobile phone is expensive by Botswana standards. Nonetheless, these young people mentioned that they feel driven to use mobile phones as a means of keeping in touch with each other. Consider the following remarks by young people interviewed as part of this study,

It is no surprise that I send my mother a call me back message every time I want her to call me (Abel, 19, male, IHS).

Whenever I need to contact my boyfriend, I will send him a call me back message. He knows that I do not have money to buy airtime to call him (Letta, 21, female, UB).

Consequently, the lack of income for most of them influences a localised pattern of mobile phone use whereby more calls are received than made on mobile phones, sending a call back message and paging from their mobile phones. Although some of these patterns may be annoying to other mobile phone users, they also remain significant for most young people in Botswana, their friends and parents who would want to connect with them from time to time.

Inappropriate Behaviours Associated to Texting

Recent studies indicate that the mobile phone has afforded young people in various countries the freedom to communicate with their peers through texting [13, 14, 21, 22]. As Broege [12]notes, this is because compared to other mobile telephonyservices, it is cost effective to exchange text messages. Asindicated above, texting and social networking activitiesconstitute the most common uses of the mobile phone amongyoung people in Botswana. However, this study revealed thattexting is also an intrusive activity among young people inBotswana. When asked to discuss what they considered to beinappropriate uses of the mobile phone, the participants in thisstudy expressed how the use of mobile phones to text andengage in social networks when other people were with themwas, in their view, undoubtedly an inappropriate activity.Consider the following remarks that arose during the follow-upinterviews with some participants in response to the issue ofobtrusive texting:

One day my ex took me out on a date to Nandos restaurant in Riverwalk mall. We were busy eating and chatting, when all of a sudden his phone chimed to signal the arrival of a text message. Starting from that moment up until the end of the date that day, all his attention was caught up on the phone. He sent and received countless text messages, until I felt out of place and requested him to take me home (Rati, 23, female, UB).

My girlfriend likes to text message on her phone a lot, and she even used to do it while I was with her until the time I out-rightly expressed to her that I disliked it, and that I felt she was discourteous to do so while I was with her (Dan, 24, male).

I hate it when I assist a customer and he or she is busy on the phone but I see this happening a lot at my workplace. Many young people would come to the bank and keep texting on the phone, ignoring the ‘no mobile phone use sign’ that is always there for all to see. I think for many young people nowadays a conversation on their mobiles takes precedence over communication outside the phone (Lebo, 24, female).

According to the participants, the young people in Botswana who like to exchange texts and chat on their phones have a tendency to disregard other people who are with them, especially when they are in public settings. As pointed out by most of the participants in the study, although there are many public offices in Botswana which have signs that prohibit the use of mobile phones, many young people habitually fail to pay serious attention to these signs. For other young people who run micro businesses and are compelled to normally send quick text message replies to their customers, it all depends on how necessary and urgent it is that the communication be sent through texting, even when other people are around. Consider the following remarks:

It depends on the mood of the setting. I don’t see any problem with secretly sending a text message when other people are around. People who are around should acknowledge you do it in a way that does not to disturb them (Naledi, 19, female, IHS).

My friends know that I am a businessman. I sell imported caps, T-shirts and sneakers. So [they] seem to never mind when I sometimes exchange quick text messages when they are around. It is common practice that if they want my attention, they would notify me. I cannot, for the sake of other people who dislike texting on mobiles, just make my business suffer by not urgently responding to my customers (Thabo, 25, male, UB).

Nonetheless, the participants in the study also argued that despite the urgency to send a text message, or even read and respond to the one delivered in an individual’s mobile phone, it is always courteous to see to it that one does not disturb others around them. As the participants in the study pointed out, obtrusive texting on the mobile phone disrupts the propriety of established settings, such as a household or class, when other people are around. This suggests that not all young people in Botswana are strongly committed to mobile phone texting to the same level.

V. General discussion and conclusions

The practice of texting, which is common among young people in Botswana, is consequence of the socio-economic challenges that they face. Some of the most predominant challenges faced by youth in Botswana include urban rural-migration, poverty and unemployment [23-25]. Clearly then, because most young people in Botswana do not have jobs and reliable sources of income, they have devised options through which they can inexpensively utilise their mobile phones, and these include texting, paging and sending chat and online networking messages to other mobile phone users. The findings also demonstrate that as young people in Botswana domesticate the mobile phone, they also contrive convenient ways in which they can utilise the device efficiently in relation to the socio-economic challenges that they face. For instance, mobile phone users who do not have the airtime (credit on their phones) to communicate through their devices can signal other users, through call back messages and paging, to contact them. In view of these findings, this article indicates that to a large extent, mobile phone consumption among urban youth in Botswana is inextricably associated with the socio-economic circumstances that surround their lifestyles. Moreover, these challenges also continue to shape the ways in which local youth consume mobile phones. For instance, as demonstrated in the findings above, due to the inexpensive nature of texting, many young people have developed a strong attachment to their mobile phone devices. Consequently, nowadays the young people text when with other people, and when in closed settings such as classrooms and households. Although texting in this manner is considered an ill-mannered activity by other youth in Botswana, it has become a habitual practice among many local youth. More so, local mobile phone users ignore the ‘no mobile phone use sign’ in many public places in Botswana.

While this study is the first of its kind in Botswana, other related studies are needed to explore more about the consumption of mobile phones. Such studies should be taken to rural places in Botswana where young people live lives separate from those in the urban areas. Conceivably, such studies will give more nuanced illustration of the use of mobile phones in developing regions.