Our consumption of online content has witnessed a drastic change with the advent of mobile devices. A lot of our time is being spent looking at photos, using maps, playing games, checking weather updates and social networking sites on mobile phones instead of desktop computers.
Apart from this, we also spent a lot of time in connecting with friends and accessing social media networks to share information and news.
The smart phone users use a lot of mobile application for their daily needs, however researches depict that the most frequently used apps are the social media apps such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
These trends pose a question that is “How often and in what ways are people using their mobile phones to access social media networks?”
The principle on which these social networks were created was to enable people to share interests, photos, events and recent news with groups of friends. The already prominent social media platforms are further rising into prominence because the mobile phones enable the user to update status, to tweet and share photos instantly.
This ever increasing phenomenon has changed the nature of social media sites. It has become a medium of sharing things in real time, which otherwise would not have been possible.
Mobile devices and smart phones have now become the primary medium used to access services like Facebook, Twitter etc. as it enables immediate update of the social media profile. Besides the internet penetration in the country increasing immensely, it has led to the improvement in access to 3G and 4G networks.
This progression has further increased the access to social media by mobile users as they are more likely to turn to social media on a portable device.
There have been numerous surveys conducted which illustrates that social networking is one of the most frequent activities on mobile devices. The mobile devices have made social media a bigger phenomenon than gaming, with the average time spent on social networking apps by phone users being 24 minutes a day.
Adobe conducted a mobile consumer survey in the year 2013, the findings of this survey show that 71% of people were reported to use their mobile device to access social media. It has also been established that people are more likely to use social media on their smart phones than on their tablets, because of the fact that tablet users act more like they would on a desktop computer.
The small and the portable nature of the mobile phone is a major factor leading to the increase in the number of people using social media on their mobile phones. Besides it also lets them update their profile and statuses as events happen.
A smart phone user can instantly check-in their location when they are on the move and inform their friends of their latest plans.
Accessing social networks through smart phones has made this kind of communication possible, as compared to yesteryears when real time updates on social media was not possible. Apart from sharing instant updates it can also be utilised as a valuable tool for businesses looking at marketing their products.
There are certain social networking platform that have been created keeping the usage of smart phones in mind, for example Instagram has led to the swell in the number people using social network on phone.
Mobile devices have undoubtedly altered the way we access the social networking, how we interact, engage and stay active in the virtual world.
Only time will tell how this medium further transforms our engagement and relevance of other mediums available.
