Young Indians in social network 'fatigue'

"Youngsters have started finding social media boring, confusing, frustrating and time-consuming," the survey commissioned by by the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (ASSOCHAM) found.

India's youth have "started experiencing social-media fatigue" and are tending to log less frequently onto social networks like Facebook, Google+, Twitter, Orkut, and others than when they signed up, the study reported.

The research that polled 2,000 young people aged 12-25 in 10 cities found many were instead using mobile applications such as Blackberry Messenger, WhatsApp, Nimbuzz, or Google Talk that allow them to chat with their friends.

"Tech overload is apparent among youth and their fixation with social media seems to be eroding," said D.S. Rawat, ASSOCHAM secretary general, commenting on the survey emailed to AFP on Tuesday.

Some 55 percent of respondents said they had "consciously reduced" their time spent on social media websites and it was no longer a "craze" for them.

More than half of the 55 percent who had cut down on their activity on social media sites said they had actually deactivated or deleted their accounts and profiles from these websites.

Of nearly 200 young people interviewed in New Delhi, 60 percent said they found it "boring and sick to see constant senseless status updates."

Most of the social media website users said they had opened many accounts initially but now preferred now to stick to a single site.

A majority of the Indian respondents also said "compulsive" social networking had led to insomnia, depression and poor personal relationships, the survey said.

(c) 2012 AFP