Internet has surely changed the lifestyles of people and their social relationships, if the study taken up by the department of commerce and management studies at Andhra University is anything to go by. Nearly 27 per cent of internet users from six cities in the state have reduced meeting people and social visits.
Of the 1,500 users who participated in a study under the University Grants Commission (UGC) Major Research Project from six cities, including Hyderabad and Visakhapatnam in the state, about 20.9 pc have reduced watching television and 20.6 pc have quit reading newspapers. The internet usage has also caused reduction of visits to libraries by 10.3 pc of participants. On the flip side, about 16.7 pc reduced their visit to a post-office as they are using emails and other web applications for communication.
“The study revealed that people are depending on facilities like social networking, entertainment, online news, emails and other information instead of the traditional methods,” said professor Dr N Rajyalakshmi, AU department of commerce and management studies, in the study carried out by her in Hyderabad, Visakhapatnam, Vijayawada, Tirupati, Kakinada and Warangal through a sample survey of 250 internet users from each city.
It was also observed that 81 percent of the internet users are below 30 years and men are more attracted to internet usage than women. The study revealed that 15.6 pc of the users have not even finished their graduation and about 37.9 pc are postgraduates. Interestingly, over 53 pc of internet users access internet either at college or office, while another 26.1 pc depend on cyber cafes.
According to Rajyalakshmi, people are increasingly getting addicted to internet and about 43.9 pc users are losing track of time while they are online and 47.9 pc of them later regret spending so much time on internet. The study also points out that people are increasingly becoming frustrated due to delay in loading of pages. About 42.1 pc internet users wait for less than five minutes to load the website and 56.9 pc complain about slow internet connections and other problems. With regard to online shopping, only 18.3 pc internet users purchase products online and are willing to continue their purchases. To the disappointment of many online shopping portals, a major segment (62.8 pc) never made purchases online. It was found that a majority of internet users are not shopping online as they fear use of credit cards as insecure. Even those who are using online financial services have bill payments as their top usage followed by booking of train and bus tickets.
Glued to the Net
* 20.9 pc reduced watching TV
* 20.6 pc quit reading newspapers
* 10.3 pc stopped library visits
* 81 pc Net users are below 30
* Men more glued to Net than women
Online Shopping Yet topick Up
* Only 18.3 pc internet users do e-commerce transactions, mostly bill payments
* 1,500 users surveyed, 250 from each city