From page 20
security, and many towns now
have community pages. One
in Benoni is dedicated to the
town's past, the Springs page
celebrates the town's heritage
and (as to be expected,
perhaps?) Brakpan has a page
solely for off-colour humour.
And there are now any
number of pages carrying free
buy-and-sell advertisements
for secondhand goods,
replacing the newspaper
Classified pages (and even the
classifieds in the Smallholder)
of old.
Plus, of course, businesses
(ours included) set up pages to
promote their goods and
services, sometimes just to
establish a free presence on
the internet, rather than
paying for the development of
a formal website.
These are just a small
selection of the Facebook
pages available to Gauteng's
smallholders and residents
and if you are not already a
SOCIAL MEDIA
member of a page, now is the
time to explore Facebook and
find out what's available and
what suits your interests and
needs covering your area.
And don't for a moment think
some pretty impressive
algorithms that “mine”
information from your online
activity and sends back to you
suggestions for pages you
might like, advertisements
very useful and cheap way
for parents to help children
away at boarding school or
university to combat homesickness. A daily message of
support and love goes a long
If you don't already have a Whatsapp way to overcoming loneliness.
group set up for your immediate
The community policing fora
family, do yourself a favour and form in some areas are also using
Whatsapp as a way to
one. It!s a free way to keep in touch.
instantly broadcast security
that, just because you're not
you might be interested in,
and related messages to
adolescent any more,
etc..
residents. These can include
Facebook isn't for you. Many, But it's not only Facebook that
messages about lost or stray
many middle-aged, even
is making a difference in the
animals, road conditions,
retired and elderly, people
lives of Gautengers. If you
house break-ins and robberhave found that being on
don't already have a
ies, power outages, missing
Facebook has enabled them
Whatsapp group set up for
persons or other localised
to communicate with long-lost your immediate family, do
municipal matters.
friends and relatives who now, yourself a favour and form
As social media evolve, it's
as a result of the South African one. It's free, of course, apart
fair to assume that some will
diaspora, are spread all over
from the cost of data transmis- grow and others will fall out
the globe.
sion, and will enable you to
of favour and become
And don't be worried about
instantly and privately
redundant. At the same time,
security. How much you do
communicate with your
there are bound to be new
on Facebook, and reveal of
spouse, children and parents, platforms launched to meet
yourself, is up to you,
even if only to check-in with
changing needs and conalthough, to be sure,
them daily to see if they're
sumer interests, some real,
Facebook's back-office runs
safe and sound. This is also a
Continued on page 24
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