An Empirical Study on Youth’s Preference for Social Networking Sites

Abstract

Internet has dramatically transformed the way present generation youth interact with one another. The usage of social networking sites is increasing drastically among urban youth in India. Ironically online behaviour among youth as an area of research is understudied. The purpose of this paper was to explore the perception, preference and usage of social network sites among the young population. The data was collected by a self-administered questionnaire through personal survey. Data analysis revealed respondents’ perception and preference for various social networking sites on parameters categorized as functional dimension and association dimension. The finding of the study provides useful insights for web designers regarding web features, design and content that would increase usage and preference. The research finding provides suggestions and directions for making social networking sites attractive, unique, engaging and user’s friendly.