Gen M2 hooked to tech
Move over Gen X, Y, Z and even Next. Teens today belong to a whole new cult — Generation M2. A new international research has revealed that youngsters between the ages of eight and 18, who are the harbingers of ‘Generation Multimedia,’ spend more than seven-and-a-half hours a day “chilling out” with computers, TV, iPods, game consoles and other electronic media. Closer home too, the scenario is no different. Young tech-addicts have bid the real world goodbye and spend more than 53 weeks a year lost in the digital world.
Take Hannan Shireen, 18, who starts and ends her day with text messages, as a case in point. “I text my friends in the morning before I go to college and stop only before hitting the sack. I am also a big fan of sitcoms like F.R.I.E.N.D.S and tune into two different channels everyday that show different episodes of the same show on TV. I also dig Facebooking and I keep checking my new notifications on my cellphone. And I also love to the PSP and I spend about one hour on it everyday.”Thanks to greater accessibility, teens are always “digitally connected.” In fact, it’s much more “cool” to be chatting away on the same online page than hanging out in person together. Gabriella Stevens, a 18-year-old, admits she is “totally addicted” to the Internet. “I spend most of my day online. I am a Farmville freak and on the weekends I spend almost the whole day playing it. I’m connected with my relatives too online and I spend hours chatting with them and friends.”Earlier, a “study break” meant heading out for some fresh air, teens today take a “Facebook break” to cope with their everyday stress. “With the Boards coming closer, you need time to relax and I make it a point to surf online for two hours before I hit the books. I also spend between two to three hours on the Internet after my study time,” adds Gabriella.And it’s not just fun that is a click away for these tech-addicts. Infotainment is the new buzzword among these teens. Paul Oomen, who is busy preparing for his final exams, says he logs on to the Net for more than just “hanging out”. He says, “With the exams approaching, most of my friends’ parents, have put a tab on the time spent online. But I use the World Wide Web to not just to catch up with friends, but also to gather information on entrance exams. In fact, our first resource for information is the Internet. Cellphones come in handy, even while verifying answers for hard questions.”He adds, “My friends and I spend a lot of time solving math and science problems on phone. I can’t imagine life before technology.”
N. Kartik Rao
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