What are college kids up to outside of class?

A new SRG report dives into the media habits of college and university students and finds while sports and Insta reign supreme, 38% also watch traditional TV.  

Hands pointing at computer screenThe latest research from Solutions Research Group (SRG) shows that the number one media activity among university and college students is the use of social media, with nine-in-10 reporting using it in the past week.

To understand the habits, preferences, and choices of students, SRG conducted a total of 2,931 interviews in partnership with 55Rush. Instagram is the most popular social platform used by his group, with 82% using it “within the last week” followed by YouTube at 78% and Facebook at 63%. Less popular are Snapchat, used by 57%, and TikTok, reaching 49%. X (formerly Twitter) doesn’t have strong appeal for this group with only 25% reporting that they’ve used it in the past seven days.

It’s no surprise that streaming and gaming are also popular activities for college and university students. Three-quarters (76%) of this digital-first generation report streaming weekly from at least one paid SVOD service – 63% streamed from Netflix, followed by Disney+ (39%), Prime Video (35%) and Crave (12%).

When it comes to gaming, students play on both mobile devices and consoles. Half play on their mobile devices weekly (48%). For mobile gaming, males and females participate equally although console gaming skews more male at 32% compared to 15% among female students.

It also turns out that traditional TV is still alive with this crowd: 38% of respondents said they watch CTV, Global, CBC, TSN or Discovery. Slightly more males watched TV (41%) compared to females (37%), likely because of sports. In addition, use of traditional TV brands were higher among students in Quebec (44%) compared to the rest of Canada (36%).

The top five traditional TV brands watched among students nationally were Sportsnet, TSN, CBC, CTV and Global. In Quebec, TVA, Radio-Canada and RDS were the top traditional brands. Traditional radio and audio were also consumed by students. One-in-four students reported listening to AM/FM radio (27%) and the same amount say they stream or download podcasts (27%). Female students are more likely to listen to audio content from these sources on a weekly basis.

SRG also asked students about their sports-watching preferences. Sixty-one per cent said they follow at least one team but 39% do not. The NHL has the highest league following (25%), followed by the NBA (17%) and NFL (12%). MLB is followed by 9% of students and UFC and F1 racing are followed by 8%, each. The NHL and NBA were tied for popularity in Ontario at 23% each where over 40% of all college and university students in Canada are located. FIFA World Cup was almost as popular as NHL hockey among students with 23% following it last year. The top three e-sports brands followed by students are League of Legends (17%), Valorant (15%) and Overwatch (7%).

But parents can also take heart, because when not online, students reported participating in sports and other physical activities. The majority (85%) say they participated in sports in the past year with gym workouts in the top spot followed by swimming, running, and yoga.

Image via Unsplash