Pantnagar Journal of Research

Abstract

Social media has increasingly gained more attention due to the advancement of technology over a period of time, yet it has fallen in public esteem. Youth uses social media more than any other segment of the population, and this use has changed their daily lifestyle by influencing their daily routines, schedules, behaviour, interaction pattern and relationships. Therefore, a research study was undertaken to find out the usage of social media by youth in rural as well as in urban areas. This study was conducted in Udham Singh Nagar district of Uttarakhand. Rudrapur block was selected randomly out of seven blocks. Total two villages i.e., Danpur and Matkota and two townships i.e., Fazalpur Mahraula and Rampura from the block were selected randomly. Total 120 respondents were selected randomly for the study and pre tested interview schedule was used for data collection. Descriptive research design was followed to meet the objectives of the study. The findings of the study revealed that that majority of the rural and urban youth belonged to middle age group and were male. They were educated up to Intermediate, unmarried and belonged to nuclear family. Maximum number of the rural youth meets and interacts with others daily and urban youth meet weekly and watch online movies and series in free time, had low social anxiety. Majority of respondents had favourable belief about social media and high motivation for social media use, medium social media fatigue. Majority of the rural and urban youth possessed smartphone and used social media to connect and communicate with friends and family. All rural and urban youth referred WhatsApp, spent 3-4 hours daily on social media, preferred to use social media during 9:00 pm- 12:00 pm.