The proliferation of mobile applications, coupled with the addiction to social media has led to almost all spare time being spent on smartphones. While it was apparent that a large amount of time was indeed spent, this recent survey showed the staggering extent of the affinity Indian’s have with their phones.
Data released from the comScore MMX Multi-Platform service claimed that Indians spent 89% of their online time (minutes) on the phone.
On an average, in 2017, an Indian spent close to 3,000 minutes or 50 hours on the phone, as compared to 1,200 minutes on the desktop. There was a 400% higher ‘unique mobile users’ than ‘desktop users’ in India which is the highest across all countries.
The top five mobile apps on the phone were Whatsapp, Google Play, YouTube, Gmail, and Google search.
84 percent of India’s Total Digital Population accessed News/Information digital content in April 2017. 13 percent of News/Information visitors/viewers accessed the content from both desktop and mobile platforms, while 79 percent accessed exclusively via mobile devices.
“It is only at the office when I check my social media on the laptop. For the rest of the time, I prefer using my cell phone,” opines Shreya, an HR executive.
“Although it is very inconvenient to access social media while working, but during breaks or so, I often access it, as the GIFs and videos look lovely on the bigger screen. Also, I prefer checking my social media feeds on the phone, since it is handy and with me all the while.
Pratiksha Sharma, a medical student, says that having social media applications on the phone prompts her to check it frequently and in the process spend some aimless time.
“I have noticed that ever since I downloaded these social apps, I end up wasting time just using them. Social media, apart from just WhatsApp (because all the communication now happens here) are not that necessary for me, Twitter maybe to some extent. Hence, I prefer accessing them on my Ipad or laptop, check on the updates and logout. The maximum time I spend, would be on reading articles from the news applications or reading mails or so.”
It also suggested that males spent more time on News/Information based digital content, contributing to 79 percent of total minutes for the category, with 85 percent of that time accessed via mobile devices.
“I have a minimum of eight movies on my cell phone currently,” says Praveen Dalvi, a Bcom student. “I keep downloading new movies on my cellphone from websites and then watch them whenever I get time.
Apart from that, I spend most of the time playing games on my phone, rather than on social media. WhatsApp is probably the only one I use regularly,” adds Praveen.
“YouTube is my favourite pastime, online shopping sites like Amazon, SheIn, Paytm make the rest,” shares Sutapa Chakraborty, a home maker. “Over time, I have been addicted to watching comedy serials, food channels, recipes, makeup vlogs etc on YouTube.
I get tempted to open the app and then sit for hours, just watching these videos. Additionally, when I get bored of them, I switch to checking the e-shopping sites for the latest trends in clothes and electronic gadgets.
“Moreover, I prefer catching up on my favourite TV serials on their apps or on sites like Hotstar and Voot rather than watching them on a TV set. Social media is restricted to my use of WhatsApp that I access 10-15 times a day,” adds Sutapa.
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Reach her at loveleen@pune365.com or tweet @KaurKaur18
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