As advanced mobile technology becomes more disappeared, the impacts on professional environments and on the personal lives of individual users continue to increase.
The research was conducted over a month and online surveys were conducted all over the country. The research findings were not astonishing but rather stereotypical with statistics proving that women have higher consumption patterns of mobile phones than men and another finding was how there are more negative factors that affect our consumption than positive factors. KEYWORDS: Mobile technology, mobile phones, youth, male, female, patterns, influence, consumption INTRODUCTIONIn today's fast-paced, ever-changing environment, technology is developed on a daily basis and is extensively by everybody for almost every purpose. Since the last decade, the progress of information and communications technologies has increased thanks to two revolutions: Internet and mobile technology.
Adolescents today are growing up knowing that communication is mediated by technology. There, mobile phones become almost universally available across most of the age ranges and the rates of adoption of mobile devices such as WAP (Wireless Application Protocol), SMS and MS have increased drastically.However, the perception of mobile phone has hanged because it is taking on a new meaning especially for teenagers who feel comfortable I The Influence of Mobile Technology on Indian Youth with non verbal ways of communication. Indeed, the cell phone has superseded its utility as a medium solely for voice calls: it is increasingly perceived as a multi- purpose device for teenagers. It could be used for adding logos or stickers, changing interface, playing games, Internet, educating oneself, starting new businesses, creating applications, etc.
Thus, teenagers develop consumption competency, social skills and various usages through the mobile phone devices and their consumption earning is mostly made by using media within their leisure activities. The paper talks about the objectives of this paper, it compares the gender-wise the consumption patterns, and it also gives a comparison stating whether the usage of mobile technology is positive or negative. It concludes by discussing the findings, analysis and interpretation of the survey that was conducted.LITERATURE REVIEW Studies suggest the upsides of mobile phone usage. Power and Horseman's (2004) proposed that mobile phone usage provides young people with an opportunity to create new relationships with others and to sustain them.
Many researchers, Chapman and Sheffield (1998); Taylor and Harper (2001); Carroll et al. (2002) emphasized on its use to increase the sense of security in case of emergency. Dijon et al. (2003) proclaimed that this technology provides means for social fulfillment of young people such as access, convenience and mobility.
Frisson (2000) and Matthews (2004) suggested that mobility also put busy working parents at ease because through this technology they can better be in touch with their children. Market (2006) suggested that learning in classroom can be promoted through increased interactivity among the students during the lecture and using the short messaging revive (SMS)can promote this interactivity. Chem. et al. (2007) proposed that having mobile phone is necessary for college students to keep in touch with their family.Also they use mobile phones to fulfill their family roles by sharing their experiences with and getting an emotional and psychic support from their family.
Ling and Yttrium (2002) proclaimed that mobile phone technology has revolutionized the patterns of correspondence and coordination among peer groups, colleagues and family member. Cove (1994) proposed that youngsters seek peer group acceptance by using heir mobile phones. But researchers, Bianca and Phillips (2005), Paragraphs (2003), Monk et al (2004), Pale et al. (2001), also recognized the problematic dimension of excessive usage of mobile phone in young people.James and Adrenal (2005) conducted a study on Australian students and identified a higher I The Influence of Mobile Technology on Indian Youth 2 usage rate of 1. 5 hours - 5 hours a day.
They also highlighted the financial costs, emotional stress, damaged relationships and falling literacy as adverse consequences of excessive usage. Matthews (2004) concluded that Australian adolescents do not make more than 5 calls a day on average and 85% of them used SMS less than 5 times a day. Situation becomes more pathetic when serious social, educational and health hazards come up as a consequence of excessive cell phone usage.Ling (2005) identified a linkage between its usage and criminal activities like alcohol, fighting, theft and narcotics use. Assertive (2005) claimed that students even use their mobile phones while attending their lectures.
McGreevy al. (2005) proposed that young people are often prone to serious safety hazards as they use their mobile phone simultaneously while driving. Bianca and Phillips (2005) and Pale et al. (2008) stated that youngsters also use their cell phones at prohibited places like petrol stations, planes and hospitals.Griffith and Renewing (2003) stated that higher usage of mobile phone leads towards being indent and other financial worries of adolescents. Koki and Downed (2003) conducted a research on students in United States.
They proposed that majority of the students tend to make calls at night. This can lead to sleep loss and other adverse outcomes. Warner (2003) proposed that, young people use SMS to be in touch with their belongings and to feel a sense of their presence all the time. Similarly, Tit (2006) claimed that, young people seem to be desperate to be in touch with their friends.
Nazi (2008) proposed that addictive mobile use has now become a public health problem and awareness about the dangers associated with excessive usage and addictive behaviors must be extended among common people. There must be consideration on securing the children and young cell phone users from the abuses and addiction of this technology. Thompson and Ray (2007) emphasized security of children using mobile phone. They pinpointed the potential risks of uncontrolled expenditures, exposure and access to prohibited, imaging or adult material and bullying via mobile phone.Age matters when we talk about the extent of mobile phone usage. Ukrainian (2008) claimed a passive usage of mobile phone among older people because they got a fear of getting familiar with new technology.
Walsh (2009) conducted a qualitative research to explore the behavioral patterns of young mobile users in Australia. He proposed that young people are too much attached to their mobile phones that they demonstrate the symptoms of behavioral addiction. Studies also show gender related differences among young users of mobile phone. Devised et al.
2009) studied the pattern of usage f new technology among school students. They concluded that boys spend more time on using mobile phone than girls do. Also, I The Influence of Mobile Technology on Indian Youth 3 adolescents consume more time on using mobile phones on weekend than on casual week days. It reflects that various factors contribute towards the extent of mobile phone usage. Turner (2008) proposed that phone-related behaviors are differentially associated with user's personality and individual attributes (age, gender etc.
. Rice and Katz (2003) revealed that mobile phone usage is associated with income, work status, and marital status of the potential users. But few studies proved a non- significant relationship among gender of the mobile phone users and its usage. Breeze (2004) claimed that mobile phone usage among adolescents was almost independent of type of class (computer science or not), gender and socio-economic status.
Many studies prove excessive usage of mobile phone Just as an abuse or a necessity of the time. Carbondale et al. 2008) proclaimed that excessive usage of mobile phones does not lead to the rapid emotional changes so it can be considered abuse but not addiction. OBJECTIVES To find the usage pattern of mobile phones gender-wise of Indian youth. To ascertain supremacy of positive factors over negative factors of mobile usage among Indian youth. HYPOTHESIS 1 .
Consumption pattern of females will be higher than males. 2. Positive factors for using mobile technology will have supremacy over negative factors. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY The research was conducted using primary methods of data collection.Given the exploratory nature of the research questions, a qualitative study was conducted through in-depth questionnaires of 40 young people aged between 16 and 24.
The questionnaires were conducted via an online portal called 'Observer and were also .NET to interested participants via electronic mails. The sample consisted of adolescents and the selection criteria for participation in the study were age and gender and it was based on random probability sampling. The gender criteria was I 4 used in the study because there is some limited evidence that males and females differ in the way that they use the mobile phone device.The survey was conducted using adolescents residing in many different parts in India and it wasn't restricted to a specific geographical area within India.
STATISTICAL ANALYSIS Mode Analysis The average monthly billing pattern gender-wise: Usage Pattern (In Rupees) Less Than 500 Between 500-700 Between 700-1000 More than 1000 Table 1. 1 Males 8 6 Females 10 5 The above table shows the consumption amount of both males and females per month in Indian rupees. In the aspect 'less than 500', there are more males than females who have exhibited this consumption pattern.Since the mode analysis shows this tally of males to be higher, and from the next 3 categories, where the tally on females is equal or higher than male, it is very evident that the monthly billing consumption of females is higher than males.
The mode analysis thus states that males spend more than males for their mobile bills. Their consumption patterns are thus high. Usage of mobile phones per day, gender-wise: Usage Pattern (In Hours) Less Than 3 Hours 3-6 Hours Used throughout the day Table 1. 2 7 By utilizing the mode analysis for this aspect as well, it can be inferred that females use their mobile phones a lot more than males.This could also be one of the reasons why their monthly bills are higher than males.
As evidently shown above, more males use their mobile devices for lesser than 3 hours where more women use their mobile phones for a period of 3 to 6 hours or for the entire day. Thus women have higher consumption patterns compared to men, as based in our hypothesis. I The Influence of Mobile Technology on Indian Youth Most frequent uses of mobile phones, gender-wise: Uses Sending Text Messages Downloading Playing Games Calling Getting updates Table 1. From the table above, we can infer as to why adolescents use mobile phones and what their most frequent use for this device is. The table above clearly shows that females or women have an extremely high usage for sending non-verbal messages or text messages whereas males are more prone to using their devices to play games and making calls. Making calls is a conventional use of the mobile phone, which you can see, has a multitude of alternatives in today's times and thus the functionality of mobile is highly varied.Read also: “Effects and Impact of Modern Technology on Youth”
