Over 75% of Indian school students spend an average of 1 hour on social media every day: TCS study

Indian school students are rapidly adopting and adapting to a Digital lifestyle to succeed in a global economy where the Default is Digital. This was the clear trend established by the TCS GenY Study 2014-15, conducted by Tata Consultancy Services across 14 cities in India.

As per the report, today’s high school students lead gadget-rich lifestyles; are heavy Internet users; and are active on social media channels to stay well-informed with current affairs and keep in touch with family and friends.

The findings of TCS GenY Study 2014-15 of over 12,365 high school students across 14 Indian cities, reveal that the ‘post-millennial’ population are very social by nature and over 75% spend an hour online every day.

However, today’s youngsters still consider face-to-face or “in-person” communication as the most preferred way of communicating with friends (36%), though 46% of the respondents said they digitally stayed in touch using video chat. When it comes to Instant messaging, WhatsApp is by far the most popular instant messaging platform (58%) followed by SMS (20%). Desktops/home PC and laptops are the most popular mode of accessing the internet (55%), followed by smart phones (30%).

Here are the key findings of TCS GenY Survey 2014:

Gadgets

• 72% own Smartphones; Most preferred gadget for 4 out of 10 surveyed.
• Over 50% access Internet through Home PCs, laptops

Social Media

• 7 of 10 say social media makes them more aware of the current events and helps them keep in touch with friends and family
• 9 out of 10 have Facebook accounts; 52% are part of at least one community on FB
• 65% have Google+ accounts; 6 of 10 use WhatsApp
• 4 of 10 use Twitter - sports personalities (66%), celebrities (55%) and film stars (54%) are most followed by students surveyed
• Social media is not considered useful for studies. Considered more useful for keeping in touch with friends and family and staying abreast with current affairs

Online Habits

• 3 in 10 respond to notifications within 5 minutes; About 4 in 10 respond once a day
• 76% spend an average time of up to 60 minutes on social media every day
• Writing posts (29%); chatting (25%); posting photos (14%) were Top 3 social activities
• 46% of the respondents used FaceTime/ Skype/ Google Hangout

 Shopping and eCommerce

• Two-thirds surveyed shop online, primarily for gadgets
• Top items bought: Electronics (66%), Books (61%); Movies (41%); Travel (39%); Clothes (36%)

Parental Controls

• 52% of the respondents said their online activities were monitored by parents
• Of those whose parents monitored their online activities, more than half gave password access to online accounts

Learning and Careers

• Online sources like Wikipedia used the most (63%), followed by PDFs (51%) and online videos (44%) for learning resources
• TV and newspapers were most used to consume news (76%); online sources (53%); and links from friends/ family (36%)
• IT and Engineering were the most sought after career options, especially among the boys (59% each; girls: 42% each)