Internet Usage among the Youth
Abstract
The report analyzes the online activities of the youth today, the most used apps, and how the internet usage is having an overall effect in not just the youth themselves, but also other institutions such as businesses.
Keywords:
Introduction
The use of technology has greatly evolved over the past few years and it is increasingly reshaping our day to day to activities. Many ventures have also been forced to adapt to this changing world to remain relevant, while others slowly becoming redundant. Every day we see new online activities coming in to replace old and less efficient ones. The ease with which the internet is taking over traditional activities is very evident, and most especially for the youth. The online world is not as it was five years ago. There has been an exponential increase in the number of internet users, and modification of institutions such as schools and businesses, to match the mindset of the internet generation.
According to research done by Lenhart (2015), the number of youths who own smartphones is currently at 95%. Increased smartphone ownership, therefore, means increased online activities. Of the 95%, 45%, which is almost half, were reported to be online almost all the time. The youth were mostly found in social media platforms such as YouTube which had the highest percentage of users, 85% to be more specific, followed by Instagram at 72% then Snapchat at 69%. Other apps that were also frequented were Facebook, Tumbler, Twitter, and Reddit. It is consequently crystal clear that online usage is increasing and will probably increase even more in the coming years.
Many institutions have had to make changes in their models to remain relevant (Kiang, Raghu & Shang, 2018). Online marketing has become one of the most invested sectors in businesses. Enterprises are aware that cohorts of their customers are shifting online and they have to strategically make changes to reach them. In the same line of thought, schools have also been forced to change their modes of teaching to accommodate the internet possessed generation. Much of virtual learning is being integrated into the curriculum with most schools making their presence online to increase the interactions of the students (Etim, 2005).
Online communications are set to increase in the coming years due to the networking factor that sustains the number of youths engaging online. A research done by Hasim and Salman (2010) by interviewing 225 respondents who were mostly youth showed that the advantages that the internet has brought are far much greater than its disadvantages, thereby driving more people to it. Although there have been adverse effects such as privacy invasion and cyber insecurity, their occurrence is very rare, and new measures are being sort to counter the problem.
Conclusion
Our culture today is mostly driven by our online activities. People today relate to each of the content they receive online. The growing technology has by far penetrated our lives and transform every sector of it. The youth today are the majority of users of internet activities. Social media has made it possible to connect with people from different worlds and has consequently been easily accepted by the youth.