The net savvy, tech savvy post millennium youth of India have rapidly adapted to a lifestyle, which is a cocktail of gadgets, internet and social media. “The need to be constantly aware always connected and make an informed choice is in the basic DNA of the post millennium students” says Ajoy Mukhejee, EVP & Head of Global HR, TCS.
As per a survey conducted by Tata Consultancy Services, 2014-15, across 14 cities in India, of over 12,365 high school students, of the age group of 12-18, the GenY of today is highly social and more than 75% spend at least an hour everyday online. They lead a gadget rich lifestyle and are constantly in touch with friends and family, being heavy internet users.
Facebook remains the favorite with 90% followers among the respondents, Google plus followed by 65% and surprisingly Twitter had 40% followers. 70% of the youngsters say, it keeps them abreast with current affairs and connected with friends and family, but they do not find it useful for studies.
36% of the youngsters still prefer face to face communication with friends, even though 46% liked to stay in touch digitally using video chat. As far as text messaging is concerned, WhatsApp stands the most popular instant messaging platform with 58%, followed by SMS having 20% followers, among the respondents. More than half (55%) of the students used desktops/home PC and laptops to access the internet while 30% liked to use smart phones. Among the surveyed youth 72% owned Smart phones and 40% found it the most preferred gadget.
As far as studies and learning were concerned, Wikipedia stays the favorite with 63%, followed by PDFs with 53% and educational online videos at 44%. Good old newspapers and TV still has a following of 76% as far as news and current affairs were concerned, whereas online sources had a 53% following, links from family and friends stood at 36%. Fifty percent of the parents kept a close eye on their online activities and of these fifty, more than half gave their children access to online accounts, trending with the fast proliferating online portals.
