Abstract

                                Social media utilization behavior of youth has tremendously changed. There were major differences observed in boys’ and girls' social media utilization behavior Keeping this in mind, study was undertaken with the 1st year M.Sc. (Agriculture) students of Tamil Nadu Agricultural University. 50 students were taken as respondents for this study. The study focuses on analyzing gender-wise differences in social media utilization behavior. The variables considered for this study were experience in social media; most frequently used social media, duration, frequency, status-posting behavior, a suitable time for social media use, and money spent on social media. Nearly 88.8 percent of boys had more than five years of experience in social media. Among girls, 56.3 percent of girls had 3 – 4 years of experience in social media. Most of the boys (55.6%) used social media to make new relationships in their life. On the other hand, 93.8 percent of the girl respondents used social media to sustain their already established relationships in their life. Mostly 44.4 percent of boys considered that usage of social media affects their academic performance and then most of the girls (37.5%) respondents considered that usage of social media improved their academic performance. This study revealed some observable changes in the social media utilization behavior of boys and girls in the context of time spent on social media, experience in social media use, money spent on the internet, and types of content shared on social media. it was also observed that there exists some difference in the social media utilization behavior among boys and girls.

Key words : Covid – 19; Gender; Social Media; Utilization pattern