A Study on the Internet Usage Pattern of Youths in Sikkim

Literature Review

College students are a perfect blend of work and leisure, childhood and adulthood, are the futures of tomorrow. Internet is a part of their daily routine as they are habituated of using computers and mobiles since their childhood (Unnikrishnan et al., 2008). College students use internet as a supplement of their formal education and use the same to enhance their social lives (Jones, 2002).

One of the most important scientific developments in the field of technology is internet which is an ocean of information (Lal et al., 2006). Its advantage over paper based diffusion of information is cost and easy instant accessibility. Today internet is the biggest global digital information library. It is the most widely used information source for today’s generation (Kumar & Kaur, 2005). The popularity of internet databases for accessing journals was highlighted in the study of (Asemi, 2005). A study conducted by Voorbij (1999) in Netherlands revealed that students and academicians used internet to search a wide variety of information including factual, ephemeral and specific information. According to Kooganurmath and Jange (1999) majority of users used internet for communication, followed by information access. The study also reported that 70% of users used internet for higher studies while 39% used it for deliberations with friends. The study of Mahajan and Patil (1999) reveals that researchers used internet for literature search, students used internet for more information on curriculum while teachers used internet to find secondary information for writing articles. The study of Kaur (2000) reveals that 75.6% of the respondents faced problems due to slow internet connectivity, more than 80% felt internet saved time, it is easy to use, provides extra information, is useful and is widely preferred over other medium. The study of Bavakutty & TK, (1999) confirms that students primarily use internet for their study, research scholars for research and academicians for teaching. Internet was also used for e-mail services, finding library catalogues and downloading images.