Social media among distant spouses in South Western Nigeria

Abstract

Industrialization and modernization have heighten in Africa and this has implications for marriages and family because they make spouses traverse the socio-technological spaces of the twenty-first century and beyond. Social media plays crucial, complicated and strategic roles yet these are still poorly understood. Social media occupies central places in human interactions as technologies continue to moderate innovations and development. More studies are however needed to sufficiently understand the roles/places of social media as key manifestation of technology in social life of Africans particularly as it affects spousal relations – key issues important to African family existences. This study in 2017 therefore examines the trajectory of social media in the digital age of Africa through empirical study in Nigeria. The study adopted a mix-method approach that includes qualitative and quantitative data gathering and analysis in Ibadan, Oyo state, Nigeria. The quantitative method was questionnaire administration on 372 respondents in five purposively selected urban elite’s areas. Twenty in-depth interviews were conducted to complement the quantitative data. Statistical software was used for quantitative data analysis while content analysis and ethnographic summaries were used for the qualitative data. Distant spouses adopt comprehensive use of social media in managing their relations virtually in manners that moderate and stabilize their relationships across space and time. Consequences of social media in the marriages are also myriad and definitive that spouses moderate them for existentialities and survival.

Keywords:

• social media
• distant spouses
• Southwest Nigeria

Notes

1 Nwanagu (2017) is an unpublished Masters dissertation from the Department of Sociology, University of Ibadan, Nigeria.