Abstract

The Covid- 19 pandemic had a significant impact on populations throughout the world. As countries implemented lockdowns or restrictions on movement of people, and most services and activities were shifted to online mode, it had a cascading effect on social lives too. As the usual entertainment and recre- ational choices were no longer viable, people shifted their attention towards other modes of entertainment, viz., digital entertainment, social media etc. As young adults, college students have a rich and varied social life. The present study investigates the impact of the pandemic on the entertainment and recre- ational trends among the engineering students of West Bengal. The study utilizes descriptive and inferential statistical tools using SPSS version 20 to investigate how social activities among the students were affected by the pan- demic. The study reveals that, while cultural/sports activities and social out- ings were the two most preferred offline entertainment choices pre and post- pandemic, a significant percentage of students shifted to other forms of offline entertainment post-pandemic [(Saha)]. On the other hand, in case of online entertainment choices, number of students preferring online streaming services increased post-pandemic (48.3 % from 40%). It has also been found that stu- dents spent more time on online entertainment mediums post- pandemic than before (4 hours from 3.2 hours per day on average). A decrease in average monthly expenditure can be observed for offline entertainment activities while a significant increase is noted for online entertainment consumption (Saha). Interestingly, while gender has been found to have an impact on the entertain- ment preferences in all cases, area of residence (rural/urban) has an impact only on online entertainment preferences post pandemic.