Access and Utilization of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) by Rural Youth of Manipur
Mayanglambam Victoria Devi, Loukham Devarani, Ranjeet Singh, Ram Singh, N. Uttam Singh · Journal of Global Communication · 2017
The study was conducted at Imphal West district of Manipur state. From two subdivisions of the district, namely Patsoi and Wangoi, 120 respondents whose ages were between 18 and 35 years were randomly selected as respondents of the study. It was found that mobile phones were the most owned and most frequently used information and communication technology (ICT) assets, followed by television. Thus, the extent of access and utilisation was found highest for mobile phones (88.83 per cent) and television (68.62 per cent). Internet was also found to have good extent of access and utilisation (68.00 per cent) with applications like WhatsApp and Facebook having high frequency of usage. Age of the respondent and family size were found to have negative and significant association with the extent of access and utilisation of ICTs, whereas education level, annual family income, attitude towards ICTs, cosmopoliteness and social participation were also found to have positive and significant association with the extent of access and utilisation of ICTs. Though the usage of ICTs by the rural youth is satisfactory, the challenge is to ensure that they use this to bring about desirable changes in themselves as well as the society.