Thaindian News

New Delhi, Jan 19 (IANS) Youngsters in urban India are gradually moving away from social networking sites due to fatigue and health reasons, said a study conducted by a commerce chamber Thursday.

The survey by the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (Assocham said that the youths were spending less time on websites like Facebook, Google+, Twitter, Orkut and Myspace as compared to the period when they had initially signed up.

About 2,000 boys and girls in the 12-25 age group in urban centres of Delhi, Bangalore, Mumbai, Chennai, among other cities, were interviewed from October to December 2011.

“About 55 percent of all the respondents across these cities said they have consciously reduced the 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,” said the survey.

“Nearly 30 percent of these said they have deactivated or deleted their accounts and profiles from these websites and it is no longer a craze among them,” it added.

Of nearly 200 people interviewed in Delhi, about 60 percent said their fascination with social networking has been fading of late.

“The youth is now finding it boring to see constant and senseless status updates and the same routine over and over again has significantly reduced the time dedicated to the social media,” said the survey.

About 75 percent of the total sample said that while they had made an account on almost every website when it was launched, a majority of them were barely using these any more and were active on a single site.

The survey further said that about 20 percent of the respondents preferred chat applications like Blackberry Messenger, Watsapp and Google Talk to stay in touch with friends.

However, a section of the youths still flocked social networks more frequently.

“About 500 of all the respondents said they had extended the time spent on social networking by over an hour. Of these, nearly 65 percent were females,” said the survey.

Meanwhile, the respondents admitted that compulsive social networking was taking a toll on their mental and physical health and even their professional and personal lives.

“Many complain of insomnia, depression, poor inter-personal relationships, lack of concentration and high level of anxiety as they tend to replace real-life social interactions with online social media,” said the survey.