According to a survey by the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (ASSOCHAM), Nearly 30 per cent of Indian urban youth said they have deactivated or deleted their accounts and profiles from these websites and it is no longer a craze among them. About 2,000 boys and girls in the 12-25 age-groups in urban centres of Delhi, Bangalore, Mumbai, Chennai, among other cities, were interviewed from October to December 2011.

Of nearly 200 people interviewed in Delhi, about 60 per cent said their fascination with social networking has been fading of late. Youngsters in urban India are gradually moving away from social networking sites due to fatigue and health reasons, said the survey. "About 55 per cent of all the respondents across these cities said they have consciously reduced the time spent on social media websites and are no longer as active and enthusiastic about their favourite social networks as when they had signed up," said the survey.

"The youth is now finding it boring to see constant and senseless status updates and the same routine over and over again has significantly reduced the time dedicated to the social media," said the survey.

About 75 per cent of the total sample said that while they had made an account on almost every website when it was launched, a majority of them were barely using these anymore and were active on a single site.

However, a section of the youths still flocked social networks more frequently. "About 500 of all the respondents said they had extended the time spent on social networking by over an hour. Of these, nearly 65 per cent were females," said the survey. Meanwhile, the respondents admitted that compulsive social networking was taking a toll on their mental and physical health and even their professional and personal lives.

"Many complain of insomnia, depression, poor inter-personal relationships, lack of concentration and high level of anxiety as they tend to replace real-life social interactions with online social media," said the survey.

“Tech overload is apparent among youth and their fixation with social media seems to be eroding as they have started focusing on more important things than grooming their digital identities,” said DS Rawat, secretary general of ASSOCHAM while releasing the findings of the survey.