NEW DELHI: The entire buzz around user generated content, has led the paranoid creative to wonder if it’s a matter of time before they are out of jobs– replaced by amateurs armed with cameras and little else.
The State of Cool, a book published by MTV’s Insight Studio has a statistic that should set minds at ease. Only 1 per cent of young visitors to user generated content sites actually upload anything fresh and original.
10 per cent or less actively participate and leave comments, while 90 per cent are passive spectators.
There are several other aspects of contemporary youth culture covered in The State of Cool, a compilation of data from five major insight studies across the globe.
According to Aditya Swamy, VP ad sales & marketing, MTV, the research wing was re-branded and has been oriented to digging deeper and going beyond numbers.
While the target audience was predominantly in the 15 to 24 age group in urban India, there are also some findings from MTV’s International Well Being Study that tracked the 16 to 34 age bracket.
The importance of catching them young is almost a cliché, but MTV states the market is more lucrative than ever before: youth across India spend up to Rs 9 billion in pocket money every day. A good part of it on cell phones and other related services.
Two years is the utility expectancy of a cell phone for 63 per cent of young Indians; 57 per cent of youth across Asia state that they’d like to replace their MP3 players with a music enabled mobile. The eagerness to add ringtones, music and games is good news for promoters of value added services.
Unsurprisingly, according to the Indian leg of MTV’s International Circuits of Cool study, personal mobile ownership ranks at a 100 per cent.
The study pits personal ownership against devices shared within the household but not owned, and those used outside the family unit. The other dominant screen in personal ownership is television at 73 per cent. There’s a high family ownership stake in devices like laptops at 25 per cent; only 5 per cent own these personally.
A larger portion actually uses laptops outside the household (15%). Strangely enough, personal ownership of video game consoles is relatively small at 20 per cent. 18 per cent believe dedicated gaming devices are part of household gadgetry, distinct from one’s own stash.
Which is not worrying since Indian youth are very family and community oriented. India is the only country where family (65%) trounces friends (61%) as a contributor to well-being.
Even in China, friends at 63 per cent are considered more important than family (44%). Family also contributes to India scoring highest on wellbeing and culture (see All’s Well That’s Swell and Culture Curry).
Swamy believes an interest in spirituality could also be a possible contributor.
Indian youth are obsessive about keeping in touch, of which social networking is a huge component. 59 per cent visit sites like MySpace almost every time they are online (see I-Generation).
India lags behind only Brazil in this sphere. As many as 69 per cent of young Indians use these sites to chat with friends.
57 per cent consider it an avenue to meet new people. It’s a de facto art gallery for 49 per cent who share pictures. In India, Brazil and China, exclusively online friends beat close friends by a huge margin.
Swamy shares some of the most revelatory findings: “It’s the right here, right now generation that believes in double impact in half the time. Style clearly supercedes substance.
Young people are not into fighting but negotiation. While traditional CD sales are at an all time low, music consumption at an all time high with TV being their largest source.”