Many Indians can’t do without Internet for over five hours: survey

23% of the Indians surveyed said they would give up chocolates and sweets for the Internet

In this Sept. 14, 2014 photo, a fan uses an app on a smartphone to order food and drinks at Levi's Stadium during an NFL football game between the San Francisco 49ers and the Chicago Bears in Santa Clara, Calif. If 49ers CEO Jed York realizes his vision, Levi’s Stadium will channel Silicon Valley’s ingenuity to become known as a technology temple programmed to pamper and connect fans who are more accustomed to being corralled in congested venues with little or no Internet access. (AP Photo/Noah Berger)

Over half of Indians who participated in a survey said they could not survive beyond five hours without access to the Internet. When asked what they would give up for access to the World Wide Web, 43 per cent replied they would trade in their TV sets as against 17 per cent of Americans who said the same.

Twenty-three per cent of the Indians surveyed said they would give up chocolates and sweets for the Internet.

Emotional response

Those were the findings of an online survey ‘Connected World II’ conducted by Tata Communications, which studied responses of more than 9,400 people across six countries: France, Germany, India, Singapore, the U.S. and the UK.

Julie Woods-Moss, Chief Marketing Officer and CEO of Tata Communications’ Nextgen Business, speaking to

The Hindu over phone, said the emotional reaction to lack of Internet connectivity was high with 80 per cent of the Indians surveyed saying they feel high emotional stress if they have no access for five hours and 20 per cent get angry if they are unable to connect.

She said, “It shows Indians are very active users and show quite negative emotional reactions when away from the Net.”

The study comprised 14 closed questions aimed at capturing behavioural, technical and philosophical responses in relation to people’s associations, understanding and emotional connections to the Internet. A total of 9,417 respondents — 33 per cent were Asian (India and Singapore respondents participated in the survey.

Ms. Woods-Moss said, “Indians definitely lead in finding out how the Net works. One-third knows that sub sea cables play a role in their access to the Net”.