Author(s): K Lavanya and Dr. R Varalakshmi

Abstract:
College students are a section of the population with a high usage of smartphones. The self efficacy of this age group in adapting to the latest updates and advancements in technology motivate them to use these phones with advanced features. Availability of smartphones at lower prices, low tariffs on calling and uninterrupted internet connectivity has further increased the usage of smartphones by college students. Vast research is going on across the globe to study the smartphone behaviours of college students and also the effect it is going to cause to the users. Present study is undertaken to study the time spent on smartphone and also to study the various patterns of smartphone usage like the various activities carried out on smartphone and the preferred apps by the college students. The study group comprised of college students in the age group pf 16 years to 25 years and majority pursuing their under graduation. Major chunk of the participants are from low and middle income groups and the students possessed phones of reputed brands irrespective of their family income. The results revealed that the college students are spending up to 6 hours and a few of them more than 6 hours also. They shared up to 100 text/whatsapp messages on working and holidays without any difference and a few of them even shared up to 500 messages. It was also found that they spend more time on entertainment followed by academics and social activities. Least preferred activity was shopping. Regarding the apps installed, majority of them installed more entertainment apps and the least number of apps installed were dating apps followed by health apps.