An internet user looks at a Facebook page. AFP
Youngsters in urban India have started experiencing social media fatigue, logging on less frequently to social networks like Facebook, Google+, Twitter, Orkut, Linkedin, Myspace, Friendster, Hi5 and BigAdda than when they initially signed up, according to a survey.
The Associated Chambers of
Commerce and Industry of India (Assocham) conducted the survey under the aegis of the Assocham Social Development Foundation to examine current usage trends among youngsters vis-à-vis social networks and the time spent on these websites.
Assocham representatives interacted with about 2,000 youngsters (an equal number of males and females) in the age group of 12 to 25 years in the urban centres of Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Chandigarh, Chennai, the Delhi-NCR, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Lucknow, Mumbai and Pune between October and December, 2011.
"Tech overload is apparent among youth and their fixation with social media seems to be eroding as they have started focusing on more important things than grooming their digital identities," said Assocham Secretary General D S Rawat while releasing the findings of the survey.
About 55 per cent of all respondents across these cities said they have consciously reduced time spent on social media websites and are no longer as active and enthusiastic about their favourite social networks as when they had signed up.
Nearly 30 per cent of these said they have deactivated or deleted their accounts and profiles from these websites and it is no longer a craze among them, while most of the remaining users said they have started maintaining a low profile on social networks as their privacy is being breached.
Consequently, they now only peep into their profiles once in a while.
About 75 per cent of the total sample said they created a profile or an account on almost each of these websites, which was a fad when they were just launched.
However, most of them said they barely use them anymore and prefer sticking to a single site.
About 20 per cent of the respondents said they hardly log on to social networking websites and prefer staying in touch with their folks via chat applications like Blackberry Messenger, Watsapp, Nimbuzz, Mig33, Google Talk and Yahoo Messenger on their mobiles and computers.