Youngsters in India are losing interest in social networking sites, says study

 

Orkut, Myspace, Friendster, Facebook, Linkedin, Twitter, Google Plus – youngsters in India have had enough of social networking sites, and are gradually losing interest in social media. The initial wave of enthusiasm around the concept of social networking, is now replaced by a quiet phase of social media burnout and boredom.

According to a recent study conducted by The Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (ASSOCHAM), India’s youth have started experiencing social-media fatigue and are logging onto social networks like Facebook, Google+, Twitter, and LinkedIn less frequently than when they had joined these sites.

ASSOCHAM surveyed about 2,000 youngsters in the age group of 12 years to 25 years in 10 cities(Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Chandigarh, Chennai, Delhi-NCR, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Lucknow, Mumbai and Pune). About 55 per cent of all the respondents across these cities stated that they have consciously reduced the time spent on social media websites, and are no longer as active and enthusiastic about their favorite social networks as they were, when they had signed up. Nearly 30 per cent of them stated that they have deactivated or deleted their accounts and profiles from these websites.

“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 Mr D.S. Rawat, secretary general of ASSOCHAM while releasing the findings of the survey.

The social media fatigue, coupled with privacy concerns has prompted youngsters to opt for other means of staying in touch with friends. The study found that 20 per cent of the respondents hardly log on to social networking websites and prefer staying in touch with friends via chat applications like Blackberry Messenger, Watsapp, Nimbuzz, Mig33, Google Talk and Yahoo Messenger on their mobiles and computers.

So, do you find social networking sites as entertaining as you used to when you started using them for the first time?

 

This post was written by Swati, Editor for Buzzom, Asia’s No 1 Social Media Blog. Pic courtesy: REUTERS/Suzanne Plunkett.