I teach a class to first-year students each fall at Drake University, and I use the first class of the semester to talk to them about their social media usage. They are all journalism, public relations or advertising majors, so they all should have a strong interest in the way we communicate.
For the past two years, I’ve also given these students a survey to see what they think about various social media platforms. This year’s results are below.
Some key takeaways:
- They love social media in general, and they love new technology. In fact, none of them said they “hate” either of those things.
- Facebook’s popularity is clearly on the decline, but more of them said they used Facebook in the past month than any other social network. Perhaps it’s a necessary evil?
- They create the most content on Instagram (tied with Twitter), but they don’t spend nearly the most time there. That may be part of the appeal of Instagram – it’s simple and fast.
- There are three networds clearly leading the way – YouTube, Instagram and Snapchat. But they don’t really consider YouTube a social network – just a place they watch videos.
See also: What the class of 2017 thinks about social media
This year, I asked them to rate 14 different social networks from 5 (love it) to 1 (hate it).
Here are the results:
| Network | Avg. rating | Love it (5) | Hate it (1) |
|---|---|---|---|
| YouTube | 4.51 | 50 | 0 |
| 4.25 | 44 | 2 | |
| Snapchat | 4.16 | 46 | 3 |
| 3.84 | 40 | 6 | |
| 3.73 | 26 | 7 | |
| Vine | 3.67 | 16 | 0 |
| 3.38 | 4 | 1 | |
| tumblr | 3.24 | 18 | 8 |
| Google+ | 2.79 | 8 | 9 |
| 2.62 | 0 | 8 | |
| foursquare/Swarm | 2.47 | 0 | 15 |
| 2.47 | 2 | 16 | |
| Slingshot | 2.38 | 0 | 17 |
| Myspace | 1.74 | 1 | 41 |
Here’s how those numbers compare to 2013. You can see that four apps grew in popularity (Instagram, Pinterest, Snapchat and Youtube). The biggest drop came from Facebook.
| Network | 2013 | 2014 | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Youtube | 4.46 | 4.51 | 0.05 |
| Snapchat | 4.04 | 4.16 | 0.12 |
| 3.99 | 4.25 | 0.26 | |
| 3.93 | 3.73 | -0.2 | |
| Vine | 3.81 | 3.67 | -0.14 |
| 3.71 | 3.38 | -0.33 | |
| 3.65 | 3.84 | 0.19 | |
| Tumblr | 3.44 | 3.24 | -0.2 |
| Google+ | 2.85 | 2.79 | -0.06 |
| 2.71 | 2.62 | -0.09 | |
| Foursquare | 2.59 | 2.47 | -0.12 |
| Myspace | 1.82 | 1.74 | -0.08 |
| N/A | 2.47 | ||
| Slingshot | N/A | 2.38 |
About the 2014 students
A total of 85 first-year students took the survey. Some more info about them:
82 of them have a smartphone (68 iPhone and 14 Android).
30 of them own a tablet.
When asked on what device they spend the most time, 70 said smartphone and 15 said computer. None said tablet.
I asked them to rate how they feel about social media in general (1=hate and 5=love), and the average score was 4.16. Twenty-eight of them said they love it and none of them said they hate it.
I asked them to rate how they feel about new technology in general, and the average score was 4.35. Forty-two said they love it, and none of them said they hate it.
I asked them which network they spend the most time on:
| Network | Responses |
|---|---|
| 25 | |
| Snapchat | 16 |
| 13 | |
| 12 | |
| 6 | |
| YouTube | 5 |
| Tumblr | 3 |
I asked them which network they create the most content on:
| Network | Responses |
|---|---|
| 24 | |
| 24 | |
| Snapchat | 18 |
| 9 | |
| 2 | |
| Youtube | 1 |
| tumblr | 1 |
Finally, I asked them which networks they have used in the past month.
As much as they don’t love Facebook, they are still using it more than the rest.
| Network | Used in last month |
|---|---|
| 81 | |
| Youtube | 75 |
| Snapchat | 72 |
| 65 | |
| 62 | |
| 46 | |
| Vine | 28 |
| Tumblr | 27 |
| Google+ | 17 |
| 6 | |
| 3 | |
| Foursquare | 0 |
| Myspace | 0 |
| Slingshot | 0 |
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