Nithya Shree, D.A.Karigar, Pavitra Ashok2021-11-112021-11-112017-06https://krishikosh.egranth.ac.in/handle/1/5810178019Study on knowledge and usage of phones and internet in mobiles by rural youth was conducted in College of Rural Home Science, UAS, Dharwad in the year 2016-17 covering Dharwad and Karwar districts of Karnataka. Ex-post-facto research design was used. 120 girls and 120 boys from four different PUC and Degree colleges were purposively selected. The data collected through self-structured schedule and statistically analyzed using percentage, correlation, chi-square and Garrett ranking. Awareness and knowledge of rural girls and boys regarding mobile phone features found as high but in case of usage, boys usage index was 93.03 and girls was 84.16. The boys and girls had significant association in case of usage of mobile phones. The result of the study revealed that around three fourth of the rural youth (73.83 %) were possessing their own mobile phones and one fourth of the rural youth (26.17 %) were not owning it. Most of the youth were receiving pocket money and spending almost half of it on mobile phones. There was positively significant difference between the calls received by boys and girls in case of family, friends and total. Cent per cent of rural youth were pre-paid users. Both boys and girls of rural areas have given first priority for social networks and have given equal priorities on camera & gallery as IV, FM radio as XI, calculator as XII, alarm & calendar as XIII. Girls have given second priority to internet and third priority for playing games and it is vice versa with the boys. The opinion index with regard to gender discrimination of parents in usage of mobile phones was low in case of both girls (29.67) and boys (33.00). Usage of mobile phones had positive and significant relationship with monthly expenditure on mobile phones, academic achievement and monthly pocket money.EnglishThesis