Facebook for self-empowerment? A study of Facebook adoption in urban India
Abstract
This article presents an ethnographic study of the adoption and use of Facebook among urban Indian youth from socioeconomically disadvantaged communities. Mobile-centric use of the Internet is widely prevalent here as general packet radio service (GPRS)-enabled mobile phones and data plans have become increasingly affordable. Less privileged youth are the lead adopters of these new technologies, and typically the first generation of Internet users, in their communities. My research uncovers their leisure-driven engagement with new media, seen through the lens of Facebook use, and the development-friendly outcomes that result from it. By examining the direct and indirect affordances of Facebook perceived by these youth, this article highlights how they swiftly negotiate social boundaries and technological hurdles, transitioning into legitimate members of a global community.
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Adoption of technology is deeply influenced by cultural context, and technological analyses of impact and use cannot be universally applied or ported over.
“Works of Irani [56], Raval [91], Ahmed [3], Chandra [25], Das [31], and Kumar [66], amongst others, have shown us that adoption of technology is deeply influenced by cultural context, and as such, technological analyses of impact and use cannot be universally applied or ported over.”
From AI and Non-Western Art Worlds: Reimagining Critical AI Futures through Artistic Inquiry and Situated Dialogue (2025) · cites this paper as [66]
Cites
Gaver, W. W. (1991) · Proceedings of the SIGCHI conference on Human factors in computing systems Reaching through technology - CHI '91 · doi:10.1145/108844.108856 · Cited by 1,536 · cited 1× · see citing works
“Second, I describe the direct affordances (Gaver, 1991) that Facebook offers these users that sustain their engagement, also noting the challenges that they overcome in the process.”
BackgroundBosch, T. E. (2009) · Communicatio · doi:10.1080/02500160903250648 · Cited by 621 · see citing works
Where there's a will there's a way: mobile media sharing in urban india
Smyth, T. N., Kumar, S., Medhi, I., & Toyama, K. (2010) · Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems · doi:10.1145/1753326.1753436 · Cited by 122 · see citing works
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Taking the Long, Holistic, and Intersectional View to Women’s Wellbeing
Kumar, N., Karusala, N., Ismail, A., & Tuli, A. (2020) · ACM Transactions on Computer-Human Interaction · doi:10.1145/3397159 · Cited by 61 · see citing works
Self-citationQadri, R., Mirowski, P., & Denton, R. (2025) · Proceedings of the 2025 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems · doi:10.1145/3706598.3714049 · Cited by 12 · see citing works
“” Works of Irani [56], Raval [91], Ahmed [3], Chandra [25], Das [31], and Kumar [66], amongst others, have shown us that adoption of technology is deeply influenced by cultural context, and as such, technological analyses of impact and use cannot be universally applied or ported over.”
- Authors
- Kumar, N.
- Affiliations
- University of Washington (US)
- Corresponding author
- Kumar, Neha
- ORCID
- Kumar, Neha
- Venue
- New Media & Society
- Publisher
- SAGE Publications
- Published
- 2014-07-25
- Volume
- 16
- Issue
- 7
- Pages
- 1122-1137
- ISSN
- 1461-4448 (ISSN-L)
- 1461-7315
- OpenAlex
- W2149462255
- Cited by
- 69
- References
- 3
- Citations by year
- 2026: 5 · 2025: 2 · 2024: 3 · 2023: 2 · 2022: 3 · 2021: 3 · 2020: 8 · 2019: 15 · 2018: 9 · 2017: 10 · 2016: 6 · 2015: 2 · 2014: 1
- FWCI
- 17.55
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- New Media & Society (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Information Systems › ICT in Developing Communities
- Social Sciences › Communication › Social Media and Politics
- Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Computer Networks and Communications › Media and Digital Communication
- Keywords
- Facebook, technology adoption, urban youth, mobile internet, GPRS, leisure participation, self-empowerment, social boundaries, global society, India
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