Do Demographic Factors Influence the Time Spent on Social Media? A Study Among the University Students of Arunachal Pradesh, India.
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Abstract
Social media usage has experienced significant growth over the years, offering numerous advantages including efficient and rapid communication, as well as information sharing and gathering. As its utility expands, social media has seen rapid adoption among students, this has led to numerous studies contributing valuable insights into its frequency and types. Hence, to add to the already existing knowledge, the current study examined social media usage within situational contexts, specifically exploring the times at which individuals engage with social media. Thus, this study aims to examine whether there are differences in the way time is spent on social media usage across different demographic groups (age, gender and family type) of students. The present research work adopted exploratory research design to achieve the objective of the study. A convenient sampling technique was used to gather data from 547 participants enrolled in an institute of Arunachal Pradesh. Data was collected through a structured questionnaire. The Mann-Whitney U tests and Kruskal Wallis H test were used to compare groups. The study found no significant difference in social media usage across age groups within various situational contexts. However, it did uncover a notable gender difference, with male students displaying a greater inclination to use social media in public spaces compared to their female peers. The analysis further showed a significant difference in social media usage during academic-related periods among the four family types.
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