With smart phones and broadband becoming increasingly available and affordable across class and geographical divides, we now see the rural and urban poor occupying the same virtual space as the middle class and the rich.

This social cloud, as I call it in the research report from which this article is derived, lowers barriers to communication, instant messaging, sharing of photos, videos and other forms of iconography.

Social media and reality TV aid the development of common trends and subcultures across class and space. As a result, what might previously have been regarded as middle class or urban trends are universalised across class and geography.

Ngcaweni is editor of Sizonqoba! Outliving Aids in Southern Africa, available at the Human Sciences Research Council bookstore

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