Mumbai: Indian youth like his entertainment on the move. His least favourite gadget is the TV, with less than one per cent voting for it, reveals TCS GenY survey 2011-12.

GenY‘s favorite gadget with 28 per cent votes is the mobile phone. Gaming consoles are also increasingly becoming popular even in mini-metros with a little over 16 per cent of students owning at least one gaming console as compared to nearly 45 per cent in metros. Music players are also very popular with 60 per cent of the respondents owning them.

Tablet PCs and Tabs, though nascent, have penetrated far more intensively in metros with 15 per cent respondents listing it as their choice of device to access with mini-metros at 7 per cent.

India‘s "Generation Y" is adopting new modes of networking using social platforms like Facebook, Twitter, as well as tools like instant messaging (IM) and chat.

TCS surveyed over 12,300 high school students in ages of 12-18 across 12 Indian cities to reveal that smart devices and online access are making GenY "instant connectors." This is transforming the way tomorrow‘s professionals are conducting their academic and social lives.

Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) CEO and MD N Chandrasekaran said, "Combination of more bandwidth, availability of smart devices and the surging popularity of social networks is changing the way India‘s high school students conduct their academic and social lives. As significant employers of India‘s talented youth, we need to understand how to leverage these social trends to create engaging careers for tomorrow‘s professionals."

The survey shows common trends among urban high school students across India but also reveals differences between metros and upcoming Tier II towns, which are emerging as mini-metros.

Three out of four students cited "Research for School" as the main reason to access the internet followed by social reasons like chatting/connecting with friends (68 per cent) and listening to music (50 per cent). Over 84 per cent of the students go online from home compared to just 58 per cent (in 2009).

Use of cyber-cafes as an online access point has dropped dramatically fallen from 46 per cent in 2009 to 20 per cent today.

Social network websites like Facebook is the clear favorite among students to connect with their peers with 88 per cent of respondents from the six metros having a presence on this social platform. One-third of all respondents said that it was their preferred site. Other platforms like Orkut and India-based networks like Apnacircle, iBibo and Hi5 are more popular in mini-metros compared to metros.

Tweeting as a medium of communication is now being used by one in three students in the TCS survey, though only 1 per cent listed it as their preferred site.

Eight out of every ten high school students own mobile phones and more than 40 per cent use mobile phones to access the internet (compared to just 12 per cent in 2009). While PCs continue to dominate internet access for students (68 per cent) at home, one in two said that they used laptops as well.

An emerging trend is the use of tablets with almost 14 per cent using these new devices.

The TCS Survey shows that increasingly India‘s urban Gen Next is turning to text and chat as alternatives to voice. 50 per cent of those surveyed in metros said that they used SMS the most to communicate while 45 per cent used IM and 38 per cent used Facebook or Twitter - all significantly higher than the number of students in metros who said they used email (34 per cent) for the same purpose.

Reflecting poorer connectivity levels, use of email (55 per cent) in mini-metros continues to higher than metros (34 per cent).

The Web 3.0 generation school students are far more conscious than before. They seem to be clear about what they would look for in a future job. IT remains the top career preference amongst youngsters, irrespective of geography, with Engineering and Medicine coming next. Media / Entertainment is emerging as a clear urban favorite.

Early use of career sites like LinkedIn is more popular in business-centric cities like Mumbai and Ahmedabad and significantly lower on a national basis.

This survey captured information access trends, social networking preferences and career interests. The cities where it was conducted were - Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Bhubaneswar, Chennai, Coimbatore, Delhi, Hyderabad, Kochi, Kolkata, Lucknow, Mumbai and Pune. The primary data was collected from the participants by means of a questionnaire at each of these locations.