http://hdl.handle.net/11089/26400 2026-04-17T22:36:36Z http://hdl.handle.net/11089/26501 Online Gamers, Lived Experiences, and Sense of Belonging: Students at the University of the Free State, Bloemfontein Pietersen, André J.; Coetzee, Jan K.; Byczkowska-Owczarek, Dominika; Elliker, Florian; Ackermann, Leane Individuals who partake in video games are often regarded with prejudice. It is an activity that is perceived to be mainly related to senseless leisure and teenage entertainment. However, many diverse people make video games such an important part of their lives that they become passionately engaged in it. Video games and online video gaming offer the player immersive experiences unlike any other forms of media. A phenomenological and interpretive exploration is undertaken in order to gain a deeper understanding of the narratives of online gamers and their experiences of a sense of belonging to the associated online communities. Through the use of in-depth interviews, the article explores various aspects of the life stories of a group of eight South African university students. It attempts to show how online gaming has become a part of their lifeworlds. The aim of this article is to present the narratives of online gamers as rich and descriptive accounts that maintain the voices of the participants. Various aspects of the lifeworlds of online gamers are explored. Firstly, an exploration is undertaken to gain an understanding of what it means to be a gamer. It focuses on how a person can become involved with gaming and how it can evolve into something that a person is engaged with on a daily basis. Secondly, it explores how video games influence the perception of reality of gamers. Immersion in video games can transfer a player into an alternative reality and can take the focus away from the real world. This can lead to feelings of joy and excitement, but can also lead to escapism. Lastly, the article shifts attention towards how online video gamers experience online communities. Players can have positive experiences with random strangers online, but because of the anonymous nature of the online environment, it can also lead to negative and isolating experiences. 2018-01-01T00:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/11089/26502 A Shock to the System: HIV among Older African Women in Zimbabwe Chikonzo, Ndakaitei; Rau, Asta; Coetzee, Jan K.; Ryen, Anne; Elliker, Florian; Young-Hauser, Amanda HIV remains a threat to the ordinary everyday life of older woman in African society. In what can be called “a reality shock,” HIV challenges most of the ordinary everyday endeavors in conservative African societies as it imposes new Western prevention, treatment, and health-management methods over long-held African traditions. The reality of the “Western” HIV epidemic, and its impact on the “African” ordinary everyday life, demands that the infected undergo a paradigm shift in order for them to live harmoniously within their society. This calls for a re-examination of traditional values and a strong sense of responsibility, courage, and determination to remain relevant and not be considered odd in one’s community, especially as one grows old with the virus. The study, which focuses on the experiences of women from the Manicaland Province in Zimbabwe who are aging with HIV, observes that growing old with an HIV infection fosters forms of inner strength and wisdom that enable the infected to disregard some of the unquestioned traditions and employ effective ways of living well with the life-threatening condition. 2018-01-01T00:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/11089/26499 The Creative Process. A Case for Meaning-Making Setai, Phokeng T.; Coetzee, Jan K.; Maeder, Christoph; Wojciechowska, Magdalena; Ackermann, Leane Since the beginning of time art-making has been a tool to express, preserve, and challenge the extant knowledge in society. Artists do this by finding or creatively constructing new understandings in society. An artist is able to do this through the medium he/she uses to relay the message of the artwork. The medium that an artist uses to express his/her artistic concept has an impact on the character that the artwork will take. The medium of expression forms but one of the many considerations that go through an artist’s mind when creating art. In the process of art-making, an artist seeks to create new meanings or re-imagine old ones by organizing materials and concepts. In so doing, he/she discovers novel ways to get ideas across, and thereby creates new interpretations of social phenomena. In this article, attention is given to meaning-making as a conscious and iterative component of creating art. From a series of in-depth interviews, the authors analyze the inward processes that occur within six artists’ creative praxes and how these lead their construction of meaning. Attention is also paid to how the artists manipulate concepts and how they construct and deconstruct their understandings of these concepts in the course of their creative endeavors. 2018-01-01T00:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/11089/26500 Online Social Networking, Interactions, and Relations: Students at the University of the Free State, Bloemfontein Sele, Sello J.; Coetzee, Jan K.; Elliker, Florian; Groenewald, Cornie; Matebesi, Sethulego Z. Online social networking (OSN) is an activity performed through social network sites (SNS) such as Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp, and Instagram. OSN has become a dominant interaction mechanism within contemporary society. Online platforms are woven inextricably into the fabric of individuals’ everyday lives, especially those of young adults. We present a mixed-methods study—conducted at the University of the Free State in Bloemfontein—that analyzes how students reflect on their everyday experiences of OSN. The key theoretical frameworks guiding this research are phenomenology, existentialism, and reflexive sociology. These theoretical lenses collectively assist in broadening our understanding of the students’ experiences that reveal the complexities associated with their interactions and social relations via SNS. From their narratives we learn how the students make sense of their engagements on SNS, how these engagements have an impact on their social interactions, and how OSN affects their self-presentation. 2018-01-01T00:00:00Z