From students’ views on social media to support for military veterans, here are this week’s top college student insights.
Social Media
Facebook documents show how Instagram harms teenage girls, a recent Wall Street Journal report revealed, and a new College Pulse survey of 470 undergraduates finds that college students agree. Eight in 10 (80%) students say Instagram is toxic for teenagers, compared to 72% of students who say the same of TikTok. However, female students and male students see the two platforms somewhat differently. Female students are more likely to say Instagram is toxic than they are to say the same of TikTok (84% vs. 68%), while their male classmates are equally likely to say Instagram and TikTok are toxic (79% vs. 80%).
Nearly 7 in 10 (69%) students say they have purposefully taken time off from social media, while 23% have not and 8% of students say they don’t use social media. About 1 in 6 (15%) students have done a social media detox for a month or more. Among students who use social media, one-third (33%) say they regularly take time off, and female students are more likely than male students to say so (36% vs. 29%).
It’s also common for students to unfriend people on social media when they no longer want to see their posts. Just 23% of students on social media say they never unfriend anyone, while 42% say they unfriend people every few months and 24% say they do more frequently. The most common reason students give for unfriending people is that the person’s posts annoy them (65%), followed by unfriending people they’re no longer friends with (53%).
What leads you to unfollow someone? Select all that apply.
Veterans Day
A new College Pulse survey of 470 undergraduates finds that a majority (76%) of college students across the political spectrum say the U.S. does not do enough to support military veterans. About three-quarters (76%) of college Democrats and 8 in 10 (82%) college Republicans say they do not think the U.S. does enough to support its veterans. However, Democrats are almost twice as likely as Republicans to say they are not sure (18% vs. 10%).
Many students have considered joining the armed forces at some point, but there is a wide gender gap. More than half (54%) of male students say they have considered joining the military, compared to one-quarter (25%) of female students and 37% of students overall.
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Methodology: All surveys were designed and conducted by College Pulse. Interviews were conducted among a sample of full-time and part-time students attending colleges or universities in the U.S. who are part of College Pulse’s American College Student Panel.
