reproduced in the SNS that are inaccessible to
those who draw on local norms. For instance,
the son of the village headman identifies himself
in a way esteemed locally but less legitimate in
Facebook; compare his description “…l am a chief
of khonjwayo trabe and l will send u invitetion
card 4 celebretion soon” with liberal sentiments
expressed on Facebook about Jacob Zuma (current
South African president), such as: “I like you, but
for a good chief, not president.” The headman’s
son’s symbolic capital enables amassing social
capital unavailable to other villagers, but its reach
is limited by norms of identity performance. The
village supports his actions if he affirms its iden-
tity and prioritizes local needs, so he constructs
his identity by listening, friendliness, modesty,
and avoiding local envy. He assumes these quali-
ties are transferable, but his local symbolic capital
is insignificant in Facebook, where his strategies
to accrue social capital are often unsuccessful.
Those with better SNS fluency cannot necessarily
domesticate SNS use to village norms of person-
hood. The student in the city receives little local
response to the Facebook groups she has formed
to help her village, or to her expressions of long-
ing for her home in her updates and poetry or
her efforts to introduce Mxit. Villagers do not ask
for help with the Internet or SNS from relatives
returning home or email or issue friend requests
to remote family, and perceive a disjuncture with
the independent identities needed to survive
township life.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR Nic Bidwell spent the
first few years of life in Africa and has been a third
culture kid ever since. From 2003 she focused on
designing interactions suited to rural contexts and
Australian Indigenous and African cultural views. In
her research—most recently in South Africa,
March + April 2010

DOI: 10.1145/1699775.1699791
© 2010 ACM 1072-5220/10/0300 $10.00