[Report] Digital Habits of School Students in India

Tata Consultancy Services has released a study titled, “TCS GenY Survey 2012 – Digital Habits of School Students”. The study was undertaken with the objective of capturing the trends and pulse of the youth across the nation with focus on technology. The study also tried to compare the difference if any, among students in major metros and mini metros in India.

The study covered 17,478 high school students across 14 cities and 1660 schools. All respondents were between the ages of 12 and 18.

The major metros include Mumbai, Bangalore, Chennai, Delhi, Hyderabad, Kolkata and Mumbai. The mini metros include Ahmedabad, Bhubaneshwar, Cochin, Coimbatore, Indore, Lucknow, Nagpur and Pune. The study was conducted from August 2012 to December 2012.

Some of the findings of the survey have been summarised below.

Gadgets

• Mobile is emerging as a first usage device ahead of the computer.
• The use of MP3 players has also declined. This could be attributed to the rising popularity of smartphones.
• In terms of brand preference, Samsung leads the way as the preferred brand among students in urban India. What is surprising, however, is that Nokia is still ahead of Apple, which is at No. 3.
• In terms of operating platforms, Android is clearly ruling the roost. But even Windows, which is at No. 2, is expanding its presence while Apple’s iOS is at No. 3.
• A whopping 58.93% of students between the ages of 12 and 18 own a smartphone.

For brands, the fact that the youth is accessing the internet using devices beyond the computer is something noteworthy as this generation is actually accessing the internet at a much higher rate than its predecessors in the same age group.

Social Networking

• Facebook has the most number of registrations, with 83.38% of those surveyed registered.
• It is also interesting to see the rise in popularity of niche networks such as Pinterest and LinkedIn among youngsters based in metros.
• In terms of preference, again, Facebook is the most preferred social networking platform, with a national average of 91.54%.

Information Access

• In metros, 1 out of 4 children uses mobile phones to browse the internet for information.
• In terms of time spent, more than 25% children spend more than an hour on the internet while about 50% spend more than 30 minutes.
• Social Networking ranks third on the list of reasons to access the internet, following Project Work and Academic Research.
• 4 out of 10 children shop online. Specifically, 1 in 4 children buy clothes and accessories online.
• The fact that a significant number of children is shopping online is noteworthy especially given that, e-commerce brands do have children as influencers if not as a target audience.

Communication

• While Facebook seems to be the principal mode of communication, voice calls and SMS follow while Email, as a mode of communication, seems to be on the decline.
• The growth of Instant Messaging is reflective of the emergence of communication applications such as Whatsapp and Blackberry Messenger.

Apart from gadgets, information access, social networking and communication, the study also covered aspects such as further education mind-set, career interests and youth aspiration products among children.

The complete report can be accessed here.

Survey Findings