The telecom boom is a well-documented story about modern India, and has been a lens through which much of the change in Indian society has been viewed in recent years. The evolution of telecoms in India has magnified the ambition and aspirations of an increasingly empowered middle class, telling a tale of outward-directed energy and dynamism, purposeful interaction and profitable exchange. Much of the telecom discourse has centred on the role of technology as an enabler and connector, a transformational force that pulls people out of their disconnected shells and propels them towards social and economic growth.
However, the other side of this technology tale is that of a disconnecter or virtual wall, that allows people to turn inwards, to retreat into personal spaces, and to spend time on things less purposeful and profitable.
The 2010 TNS Global Telecom Insights study (GTI) points to a high need for personal entertainment from mobile devices ? this is among the top future needs from the category in India and is higher than any other country at 31%. The need for personal entertainment also seems to exist across age bands and is prevalent in men as well as women, albeit in different forms (with the younger users and men more focused on music and gaming, and older users and women desiring other forms of personal entertainment). Global research into emotional needs that can be fulfilled by communications technology tells a similar story. If we compare work and achievement-focused needs with those that revolve around enhancing personal time, we find a slightly higher emphasis on the latter.
What is significant is not just the heavy focus on entertainment, but also the shift towards activities that allow people to retreat into personal spaces. With the exception of sharing pictures, we find that most of the top entertainment needs in the GTI study are in individual domains.
The dominant images of India in marketing communication are, at one level, about drive and achievement, and at another level about a highly affiliative culture known for its close-knit families and porous personal boundaries. However, as India gets more wired, mobile phones don?t just eliminate distance but sometimes facilitate distance and space ? drawing boundaries between home and work, between family and self, and acting as a barrier to social interaction.
Evidence from ethnographic studies on technology suggests a growing need for personal downtime ? a need for disconnection from work and the ?world out there? as well as the chaos of social and family obligations. This need becomes all the more stark if we consider the realities of the physical environment in which middle class India lives and works ? the density of people on an average street, commuters in an average bus, or shoppers in an average marketplace.
We see traces of the same need in research across other categories, not just technology. For example:
* Women speak of the early morning hours before anyone wakes up as their most precious time in the day. Or the mid-morning hour when everyone has left the family home and they turn to their phone ? to connect with a friend, but equally to disconnect from the chaos of their own household.
* Men and women from lower socio-economic groups often seek out a quiet spot in a temple, not for spiritual reasons but just for some quiet time. Religious or spiritual music downloads on mobile phones are hugely popular among lower socio-economic groups, being easy to justify both with respect to the expense involved and with respect to ?tuning-out? of a social space. They become a virtual cocoon in the absence of a physical one.
* Men talk about the need for ?winding down? or ?calming energy?, where a few years ago we used to hear primarily about the need for energy to ?go on?. Talking about and openly acknowledging the need for individual activities that help to unwind and calm (distinct from the need for rest) is a relatively new phenomenon in middle class India.
* Teenagers, trapped within the confines of the home, use technology not just to connect with the outside world but to ?zone out? of their immediate surroundings. Teens in India rarely have their own rooms to withdraw into ? for privacy, to sulk, or to dream. However a simple combination of a phone and earphones can turn any corner of a crowded house into a private zone.
* The phenomenon is observable beyond the upwardly mobile urban middle class. At the Internet kiosks set up in Indian villages to assist farmers with education and agriculture related information, users download movie trivia, music from the internet and of course look at cricket-related news.
Marketers tend to focus exclusively on the achievement-driven and outward-oriented needs in India. While these are undoubtedly still the dominant themes in the Indian story, it is important to acknowledge the other side of the story.
In an economically tiered and even divided market, this new narrative has the potential to be more unified and provide opportunities on an unimaginable scale.