© Kamla-Raj 2015 J Soc Sci, 44(1): 1-7 (2015) Youth, Youth Culture and Socialisation in the Present Technological Era in a Rural Village of Limpopo Province, South Africa K. Morwe 1 , T. P. Mulaudzi 1* , A.K. Tugli 2 , E. K. Klu 3 , N. J. Ramakuela 4 and P. Matshidze 5 1 Institute for Gender and Youth Studies, University of Venda, South Africa * E-mail: patrecia.mulaudzi@univen.ac.za 2 Department of Public Health, University of Venda, South Africa E-mail: tugli.augustine@univen.ac.za 3 Department of English, University of Venda, South Africa E-mail: asongkwesi@gmail.com 4 Department of Advanced Nursing, University of Venda, South Africa E-mail: Nditsheni.Ramatkuela@univen.ac.za 5 Department of Indigenous Knowledge System, University of Venda, South Africa E-mail: Pfarelo@univen.ac.za KEYWORDS Youth. Youth Culture. Socialisation. Technological Era ABSTRACT Young people are seen to be adopting and practicing peculiar norms that are contradictory to those of their societies. These unique modes of youth expression lead to the stereotyping of the young people and ultimately their marginalisation. This paper aimed at exploring how youth culture contributes to the socialisation of youth at Phiphidi village in the Limpopo Province, South Africa. 40 people participated in this quantitative descriptive survey. A purposive sampling technique was used to choose the respondents located at two popular youth hangouts. Data was collected through self-administered questionnaires. The findings revealed that the respondents belonged to some form of a group in their community, which were either formal or informal. The respondents’ peers played a role in shaping personalities as they were kept abreast with the latest trends, be it information, music or fashion. The use of technology was primary for this group and it was used to establish and maintain relationships, to explore the latest trends and to discuss school issues to an extent. This paper implies youth culture has a role to play in the socialisation of the youth. INTRODUCTION Youth is a stage of transition in preparation to adulthood, which then requires that the young person finds a niche in society, often through tweaking the social norms. This process of standing out from the general populace is known as youth culture, a distinct way of life that en- hances the youth transition to adulthood and helps them to deal with the uncertainties of mod- ernisation (Thomson and Holland 2004; Brakem 2013). Youth culture is a function of the cultural, economic, political, social and technological changes that occur across generations and leads to the disappearance of values and rules associ- ated with traditional socialisation; leading to the youth being caught in an ethical and cultural vacuum (Holzhausen 2007; Toks 2015). This eth- ical and cultural vacuum represents the pre- fig- urative society, within which the socialisation process is neither hierarchical nor linear. The changes in the socialisation process mean that the older generation is no longer the repository of knowledge as technological advancements; a forte for the youth renders their knowledge obsolete. This situation blurs intergenerational rela- tionships, roles and leads to confusion and dis- tortion of norms as the youth become responsi- ble for their own socialisation process because of their competency to adapt and interact with the technological changes (Department of Eco- nomic and Social Affairs (DESA) 2007; Grusec and Hasting 2015). Furthermore, external forces such as capitalism, the introduction of formal institutions and urbanisation have presented the family with divergent and conflicting values, thus impinging upon the family’s efficacy to social- ise the youth but also redefining the develop- mental tasks of the youth raising the prominence of peer group socialisation, since these are peo- ple they spend most of their waking lives with, from an early age (Bucholtz 2002; Toks 2015). The above background information reveals that the traditional socialisation institutions are ei- ther under stress or have breakdown, it is there-