SCID Stands for Social and Cultural influences on Digital Habits.
Digital habits are behavioural patterns that we keep building as we interact with digital devices and the thing about these digital habits are they are particularly difficult to break. Primarily because of our emotional dependence on these and secondarily because of the illusion of control.
The goal of SCID is to investigate how our social and cultural factors influence the formation of our digital habits, especially in the Indian Youth.
India is a vibrant land of diverse populations, and the first thing Indians say about other Indians is they never mind their own business, lol. In a land like this, societal influence has always played a part on decision making, be it choosing a shirt, a degree or a spouse: what other people think matters.
And SCID aims to investigate how much of our digital habits are influenced by what other people think.
Similarly, India is also a very cultural country, cultural communities play a great role in determining right and wrong throughout a child’s upbringing, they play a crucial role in establishing values and a belief system in Children, who eventually grow up, at least most do. So, SCID also aims to investigate the role of cultural factors in the formation of these digital habits and how much sway do these cultural factors hold in the retention of digital habits.
By uncovering insights, we aim to understand digital behaviours as influenced by social and cultural factors and then leverage these insights for behavioural change for the good.
Read the research proposal here.