* Chairperson and Associate Professor, Department of Mass Communication and Journalism, Mangalore University, Dakshina Kannada, Karnataka, India.
** Research Scholar, Department of Mass Communication and Journalism, Mangalore University, Dakshina Kannada, Karnataka, India.
Social media has now become part of everyday life for a majority of youth and professionals. The social networking sites are often thought of as places to share interests and to catch up on personal information and current activities. However many students are using SNSs as a source of information. This study focuses on the usage of SNSs among 120 students of Mangalore University. Major aspects of the study concentrates on -the time spent on SNSs, purpose, language used and concern over crime and privacy issues. Some of the major findings show that most of the students access internet and SNSs from educational institutions for personal rather than professional purposes. Surprisingly LinkedIn, a professional SNS is hardly used by the students. English is the most preferred language for SNSs usage despite its availability in other Indian languages. Earlier studies on the use of SNSs on Indian youth revealed that there was little concern on privacy issues but this study points that there is growing concern among students over privacy issues. As far as mean behaviour on SNSs is concerned, surveys among American youth have revealed more mean behaviour on SNSs while among the Indian youth such instances are few. There is lot of concern on increasing incidence of crime among the Indian youth using SNSs.
