Mumbai youth lean more on friends than family, survey finds
An
ongoing survey conducted by PUKAR on private and public space along
with the travelling think tank BMW Guggenheim Lab shows that an average
Mumbaikar no longer falls back on family.
MUMBAI: Mumbai's youth appear to increasingly put a premium on privacy
and spending time away from home with friends. This new-age phenomenon
mirrors the changing dynamics of personal and social lives in a city
where friends are the new family and seeking solitude is a way of reclaiming space for oneself.
An ongoing survey conducted by PUKAR (Partners for Urban Knowledge Action and Research) on private and public space along with the travelling think tank BMW Guggenheim Lab shows that an average Mumbaikar no longer falls back on family.
More than one in two Mumbaikars, particularly youngsters, put friends and themselves ahead of family where both leisure and personal crises are concerned. It also found that 36.38% Mumbaikars like to spend time with their friends while 26% prefer to be on their own. Family emerges as the third option.
The survey, with a sample size of 800 individuals, covered 10 key locations across the city over a span of two months. Privacy is, in fact, akin to solitude for one in three Mumbaikars. Most people's idea of privacy is escaping family and neighbours. The quest is evident from the fact that 26% shirk their neighbours and 24% their families. In fact, 11% even want privacy from their partners.
"People are becoming more individualistic. This is primarily due to globalization and an extreme sense of competition. They are losing connection with the community and the city at large. The younger generation is, in that respect, more self-centered," said Anita Patil Deshmukh, executive director, PUKAR. "With round-the-clock connectivity with the entire world, the sense of the self and community have totally changed," she added. The main idea behind the survey is to recommend the kind of public spaces Mumbaikars need or want.
This shift in priority is related to the spatial and technological changes Mumbai has gone through in the past few decades, said experts. Nilima Mehta, a professor of human behaviour, said friends are the new family in the urban context. This is because people spend most of their quality and even quantity time at work or with friends. Since workplaces are so far removed from home, young people foster a close bond there," said Mehta. Technology such as social media networks has enabled people to choose their relationships breaking free from blood ties. "This, however, doesn't undermine the role of the family. As long as there is a bond and attachment, people continue to grow positively," Mehta said.
Experts said individualism in the urban context may not be the same as self-centeredness. With very little physical space and almost incessant interaction with the world at work and home, people often look for a space where they can be themselves. "Several school principals tell me that they would like to go back and be in a room that is silent. Often, working men want to spend Sundays doing nothing at home," said psychiatrist Harish Shetty. Individualism needs to be viewed through a new prism, he said.
An ongoing survey conducted by PUKAR (Partners for Urban Knowledge Action and Research) on private and public space along with the travelling think tank BMW Guggenheim Lab shows that an average Mumbaikar no longer falls back on family.
More than one in two Mumbaikars, particularly youngsters, put friends and themselves ahead of family where both leisure and personal crises are concerned. It also found that 36.38% Mumbaikars like to spend time with their friends while 26% prefer to be on their own. Family emerges as the third option.
The survey, with a sample size of 800 individuals, covered 10 key locations across the city over a span of two months. Privacy is, in fact, akin to solitude for one in three Mumbaikars. Most people's idea of privacy is escaping family and neighbours. The quest is evident from the fact that 26% shirk their neighbours and 24% their families. In fact, 11% even want privacy from their partners.
"People are becoming more individualistic. This is primarily due to globalization and an extreme sense of competition. They are losing connection with the community and the city at large. The younger generation is, in that respect, more self-centered," said Anita Patil Deshmukh, executive director, PUKAR. "With round-the-clock connectivity with the entire world, the sense of the self and community have totally changed," she added. The main idea behind the survey is to recommend the kind of public spaces Mumbaikars need or want.
This shift in priority is related to the spatial and technological changes Mumbai has gone through in the past few decades, said experts. Nilima Mehta, a professor of human behaviour, said friends are the new family in the urban context. This is because people spend most of their quality and even quantity time at work or with friends. Since workplaces are so far removed from home, young people foster a close bond there," said Mehta. Technology such as social media networks has enabled people to choose their relationships breaking free from blood ties. "This, however, doesn't undermine the role of the family. As long as there is a bond and attachment, people continue to grow positively," Mehta said.
Experts said individualism in the urban context may not be the same as self-centeredness. With very little physical space and almost incessant interaction with the world at work and home, people often look for a space where they can be themselves. "Several school principals tell me that they would like to go back and be in a room that is silent. Often, working men want to spend Sundays doing nothing at home," said psychiatrist Harish Shetty. Individualism needs to be viewed through a new prism, he said.
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