Laptops are passe, Chennai youth prefer tabs

Chennai:

Even laptops are passe. It’s now the era of the slick and sleek handheld tablets. And if the findings of the TCS survey 2012-13 which were released on Monday are anything to go by, tablets are Chennai youngsters’ most preferred gadgets.

The survey, with a sample size of nearly 17,000 high school students across 14 Indian cities, is the first of its kind with an exclusive ‘post-millennial’ audience.

The findings also highlight the fact that India’s post-millennial generation is all set to overtake the preceding millennial generation or ‘Gen Y’, taking communication over social networks like Facebook and Twitter and instant messaging modes like Whatsapp to newer extremes.

But the city’s youngsters still seem to have a little bit of traditionality left over, if one can call it that. One of the other main highlights of the survey is the fact that 19 per cent of the city’s respondents seem to spend over an hour daily on the Internet and prefer to make voice calls and send instant messages to keep in touch. This is in direct contrast to the rest of the country, where youngsters are increasingly turning towards text and Facebook chat as alternatives to voice calls.

Seventy four per cent of those surveyed said they used Facebook the most to communicate, while 54 per cent use SMS – both significantly higher than the number of students who said they used voice calls (44 per cent) for the same purpose.

Nationally, the study also reveals that smart devices and unprecedented levels of online access are making the present generation the most connected. This is changing the way they communicate with each other and transforming both their academic and social lives.

Commenting on the survey, N Chandrasekaran, CEO and MD of TCS said, “Urban school students are gaining greater online access with more affordable bandwidth and smart devices on offer. As significant employers of India’s talented youth, it is important for us to understand these social and digital trends to create engaging careers for this generation.”