IT and College Students in India


By Vinny Alex



The Indian College Students Attitude Towards IT
McDonald's. Coke. MTV. The three most important things in a college student's life, did you say? True. Yet this cultural change is only part of the picture. There is another silent revolution sweeping swiftly across India. A revolution that is reshaping the very character of the Indian student population. A revolution called the Internet.

'The Net'
as it is casually referred to, is as much a necessity as Coca-Cola or pizza for the present generation of students. Step into any Internet café and take a quick look at the crowd there…you will be left wondering if you accidentally walked into a teen hangout. To put it simply, being net savvy is the latest cool thing for Indian teenagers.

A recent survey conducted by the Mudra Institute of Communications, Ahmedabad (Mica), in nine major cities across the country revealed that the Internet was used mainly as an entertainment tool. Although the information highway was actually created as a means of sharing serious ideas and mutually interesting content, a new generation of young wannabes added a fun element that was absent in the vision of the original creators.

72 percent of the students who responded said they used the Net for e-mail. Another favourite pastime, as reported by MICA, was playing games (50 per cent). The popularity of e-mail is not surprising. Its fast paced, almost instantaneous communicability is very much in tune with the go getting, fast track lifestyle of the students themselves.

Not all users are fun oriented, though. There is quite a large group which uses the net as an educational aid, to download application forms of foreign universities, for example, as well as other academic paraphernalia. 50 per cent of those surveyed stated that they searched the Net for education related content while 45 per cent went online as part of their curriculum - related work. Yet others create their own websites to showcase their skills, impressing friends and potential employers.

As everywhere else in the world, the Internet has caused a major metamorphosis in the lives of these students. Almost half of them said their TV viewing has decreased since they began using computers. Many others said that there was a decline in the time they spent on other activities such as being with family and friends, reading, watching movies, listening to the radio, talking on the phone, playing 'real' games and shopping.

So what do these findings prove? That Indian students are no different from their counterparts in other countries? Certainly. But stop to consider certain conditions peculiar to Indian Internet users.

Inadequate bandwidth, connectivity problems and bad telephone lines make connecting to the Internet a nightmarish experience. Downloads are slow and painful, often the requested page cannot be displayed correctly or fully. Worse, computers are still a luxury for most middle class families, simply because of the prohibitive prices of branded systems. Teenagers are dependent on browsing centres which charge on an hourly basis. Unlike in the West, most Indian students do not hld jobs and are dependent on their
parents for pocket money.

Considering these factors, it is difficult to believe that it is college students rather than older wage earners who rule the Net. The Internet is one area which Indian parents and educators are yet to fully come to terms with.

Indian student's attitude to the Internet
So what explains the Indian student's attitude to the Internet? The answer lies in the very nature of India itself. Indian society is a curious mixture of age-old traditions and western influences. Youngsters may look to the West to define lifestyles but never completely shake off their Indian roots. Indian traditions still dominate, especially in the more conservative South. These traditions are often seen as too stifling or limiting by the younger generation.

It is this factor, more than any other, that explains why Indian students have embraced the Net so quickly. It is the sheer freedom it offers to its users. There is no authority figure breathing down your neck here. This is one medium where each user makes his or her own rules - a kind of total freedom that most Indian students can only dream of in real life.

There is no great need to rebel against existing norms simply because real life rules do not apply here. Even better, there is no right or wrong here - codes of conduct are evolved afresh by like-minded groups. Almost a utopian ideal but a virtual reality!

The relative anonymity cyberspace offers means there is no fear of social embarrassment and no confusing etiquette systems to be learnt. On the Net, you can be anyone or anything you want to be. And as the Indian college student has discovered, the internet is a great way to meet members of the opposite sex. Thus fun flirting is seen as a cool pastime, and the Net is the ultimate fun tool.

Also, thanks to the Internet, Indian teenagers are no longer dependent on often outdated sources of information. Nor do they need other people's interpretation of global trends. The democratic nature of the net allows all to communicate on equal terms; political, economic, cultural or religious affiliations are meaningless in cyberia. At the touch of a button, the Indian student can hear what their contemporaries in Australia or Zimbabwe think and discuss their views on subjects of common interest…

It is college students who have the fullest understanding of the true potential of the information highway. Experts continue to complain about bad bandwidth and other technological bottlenecks but the Indian students of today have made the Net a crucial part of their lifestyles. It is their shrewd comprehension of the Net's capabilities and their enthusiastic attitude that will be crucial in hooking the older generation onto the information superhighway.

The niche group of Internet users in India is, for now, college students. But the browsers are getting younger by the day. The pattern of Internet usage in India will continue to change. After all, evolution, as any teenager will tell you, is the law of survival in the virtual world too.

URLs
http://www.mica-india.net/output/xxx.html
http://www.nasscom.org/template/inetec.htm
http://www.newsbytes.com/news/00/159407.html

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