‘oh it’s so irritating to see my students are always at
facebook!’ Mr. Reddy (46, teacher at a private school ) commented recently during a
conversation over coffee. A widening
generation gap on the perception of social network (‘wastage of time’ vs. ‘great
way to communicate’) and it’s super emphasized ‘ill effects’ are mushrooming the
ban of social networks at the educational institutions across India.
But, contradicting to what the ‘oldies’ think, here’s a survey
report that was published at the time of India, June 16th 2013. The report
states “about 75 per cent of India's youth
prefers social media over phone calls to communicate, with more students using
the Net for school-related tasks, says a TCS survey…. The findings, a part of
Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) Gen-Y survey 2012-13, reveal that today's youth
are collaborating through social networking tools and building virtual
communities aided by affordable bandwidth and smart devices.”
Interestingly,
the youth are also finding ways to divert the firewalls and access social
networks! Rubani (21years) informed me that platforms like ‘hidemyass’ is
increasingly used to access the banned contents. It’s also ‘cool’ to break the
firewall and let everybody know! Recently in the confession page one girl
expressed her ‘love and respect’ to a boy who is known to be a great ‘breaker’.
The TOI
reported ‘India's post-millennial
generation, those people born in 1996 and afterwards, seem set to overtake the
preceding millennial generation, taking communication over social networks like
Facebook and Twitter and instant messaging modes like Whatsapp to newer extremes…
Nearly three out of four students cited "Research for School" as the
main reason to access the Internet followed by social reasons like chatting and
connecting with friends (62 per cent)… Seventy four per cent of those
surveyed said they use Facebook the most to communicate while 54 per cent
conceded to use SMS, both significantly higher than the number of students who
said they use voice calls (44 per cent) for the same purpose… The survey
said the urban post-millennial generation is increasingly turning to text and
chat as alternatives to voice”.
To be noted most of the institutions
even banned mobile phones! Large universities like Anna university (which
controls 227 engineering colleges apart from many other universities) have
banned mobile phone way back in 2006.
To TOI TCS Chief Executive N Chandrasekaran
said “Urban school students today are gaining greater online access with more
affordable bandwidth and smart devices on offer. They are an ultra-connected
generation using the power of the Internet for education as well as collaborating
through social networks and building virtual communities."
The
survey added that the preference for Facebook is equally high among respondents
in both metros (92 per cent) and mini-metros (91 per cent).
Hence, there is a clear perception gap
(regarding the usage of social media and mobile phone) among the Gen next and
older generation. The older generation must understand that social networks are
great platforms to learn, communicate, network and gain knowledge.
Read the TOI report here
Other references : http://education.sulekha.com/cell-phone-banned-by-anna-university_90118_blog
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