For the past three years, I’ve given a survey to first-year students (college freshmen) in my multimedia class at Drake University to see what they think about various social networks. These are journalism, public relations and advertising majors, so they should have a good interest in the way people communicate.
The survey asks them to rate social networks and to share their thoughts on how they use social media.
Want to know what’s new in social media and digital marketing?
Sign up for my weekly email newsletter.
Here are some key takeaways from the 2015 numbers (and follow-up discussions).
- YouTube fell to third place in this year’s survey after finishing first each of the previous two years.
- It’s a Snapchat and Instagram world. Not only did those apps rank No. 1 and 2, they were the only apps that have seen their rating increase each of the past two surveys.
- Snapchat, Instagram and YouTube have been the top 3 networks every year I’ve done the survey.
- This group likes social media in general and new technology less than last year’s group. I asked them to rate how they feel about social media in general (1=hate and 5=love), and the average score was 3.88. This was down from a score of 4.16 last year.
- Facebook, Vine and Twitter had the biggest decline in popularity from the first survey in 2013 to this year.
- They’ve never used (nor even heard of) Meerkat or Periscope – the current trendy social media apps.
[Tweet “College freshmen rank Snapchat and Instagram as top social networks.”]
[Tweet “Facebook, Vine and Twitter see biggest drop in popularity among college freshmen.”]
See also: What the class of 2018 thinks about social media
This year, I asked them to rate 18 social networks from 1 (hate it) to 5 (love it). Here were the results:
| Network | Avg. rating | Love it (5) | Hate it (1) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Snapchat | 4.37 | 42 | 1 |
| 4.33 | 44 | 1 | |
| Youtube | 4.28 | 37 | 1 |
| 3.72 | 27 | 5 | |
| 3.55 | 17 | 6 | |
| FB Messenger | 3.38 | 14 | 6 |
| Vine | 3.37 | 14 | 7 |
| 3.18 | 5 | 4 | |
| tumblr | 3.14 | 13 | 12 |
| YikYak | 2.75 | 4 | 16 |
| 2.61 | 3 | 10 | |
| 2.58 | 2 | 12 | |
| Google+ | 2.53 | 1 | 13 |
| foursquare | 2.43 | 0 | 15 |
| Periscope | 2.39 | 0 | 16 |
| Meerkat | 2.33 | 0 | 18 |
| Tinder | 2.13 | 1 | 29 |
| Myspace | 1.79 | 0 | 38 |
Here is how the numbers compare to the past two years (for the networks that were on the list last year). You can see that Snapchat and Instagram are the only networks to grow in popularity each of the past two years. (See the image below larger.)
| Network | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | 2-year change |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Snapchat | 4.04 | 4.16 | 4.37 | 0.33 |
| 3.99 | 4.25 | 4.33 | 0.34 | |
| Youtube | 4.46 | 4.51 | 4.28 | -0.18 |
| 3.65 | 3.84 | 3.72 | 0.07 | |
| 3.93 | 3.73 | 3.55 | -0.38 | |
| FB Messenger | N/A | N/A | 3.38 | |
| Vine | 3.81 | 3.67 | 3.37 | -0.44 |
| 3.71 | 3.38 | 3.18 | -0.53 | |
| tumblr | 3.44 | 3.24 | 3.14 | -0.3 |
| YikYak | N/A | N/A | 2.75 | |
| N/A | 2.47 | 2.61 | ||
| 2.71 | 2.62 | 2.58 | -0.13 | |
| Google+ | 2.85 | 2.79 | 2.53 | -0.32 |
| foursquare | 2.59 | 2.47 | 2.43 | -0.16 |
| Periscope | N/A | N/A | 2.39 | |
| Meerkat | N/A | N/A | 2.33 | |
| Tinder | N/A | N/A | 2.13 | |
| Myspace | 1.82 | 1.74 | 1.79 | -0.03 |
The only other networks up from last year were WhatsApp and Myspace (which is the lowest-rated network on the list).
Every other network was down in this year’s ratings. The three networks with the biggest drop in popularity were Vine (-0.3), Google+ and (-0.26) and YouTube (-0.23).
About this year’s students
A total of 76 first-year students took the survey (last year there were 86).
They all own a smartphone (66 own an iPhone, nine own an Android and one selected “other”).
32 of them own a tablet.
When I asked them on what device they spend the most time (smartphone, tablet or computer), 62 said smartphone and 14 said computer.
[Tweet “82% of college freshmen spend more time on smartphone than on computer.”]
I asked them to rate how they feel about social media in general (1=hate and 5=love), and the average score was 3.88. This was down from a score or 4.16 last year. Fifteen said they loved it and none said they hated it.
I asked them to rate how they feel about new technology in general, and the average score was 4.29. This is down from 4.35 last year. Thirty-two said they loved it and none said they hated it.
More social media results
I asked them which networks they spend the most time on (Twitter was No. 1 last year and Instagram was No. 4):
| Network | Responses |
|---|---|
| 19 | |
| 17 | |
| Snapchat | 17 |
| 10 | |
| 8 | |
| tumblr | 2 |
| 1 | |
| None | 1 |
| Youtube | 1 |
(Reddit was a write-in).
I asked them which networks they create the most content on (Instagram and Twitter tied for No. 1 last year):
| Network | Responses |
|---|---|
| Snapchat | 26 |
| 21 | |
| 14 | |
| 7 | |
| tumblr | 2 |
| 2 | |
| Youtube | 1 |
| 1 | |
| None | 1 |
| WordPress | 1 |
(WordPress and Reddit were write-in numbers).
Finally, I asked which networks they have used in the past month (Facebook was No. 1 last year):
| Network | Used in last month |
|---|---|
| Snapchat | 71 |
| 70 | |
| 63 | |
| 63 | |
| YouTube | 61 |
| 46 | |
| tumblr | 28 |
| Vine | 27 |
| YikYak | 23 |
| Google+ | 10 |
| 7 | |
| Tinder | 7 |
| 5 | |
| foursquare | 1 |
| Myspace | 1 |
| Periscope | 0 |
| Meerkat | 0 |