By Katie Gaughan

While you’re doing homework, your phone pings. It’s a new follower notification from Instagram. You follow them back and get a Snapchat notification. 

You open the snap from your friend, telling you to look at someone’s latest Facebook post. You open Facebook. You find the post. You find their mom’s page. 

You find out where they went to high school and what they wore to their junior prom. Two hours have passed. 

Ninety-nine percent of La Roche University students have experienced time travel just like this.

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A recent survey asked La Roche University students if they use social media. The survey defined social media as apps and websites that allow users to communicate and create content using online social platforms.

In September of 2023, 100 La Roche students completed a survey in CC Square. This sample size represents the entire La Roche student population. If students answered that they do use social media, the survey asked about their online presence and habits. 

Ninety-nine percent of students said they use social media. One percent of students said they do not use social media because they are not interested. 

Next, the  survey asked students to indicate what social media platforms they use by circling them. The options included Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok, Facebook, and X. Eighty-four percent of students who use social media circled Instagram and the same percentage of students circled TikTok. 

The platform La Roche students said they use most is Snapchat, at 92 percent. Forty-six percent of students use Facebook and 38 percent use X, formerly known as Twitter. 

Twenty-eight percent of the La Roche student community use all five forms of social media. 

The survey then asked students who use social media if their online presence increased during the COVID-19 pandemic. Sixty-seven percent of students said they used social media more during the pandemic. 

Twenty-four out of 100 students also admitted that their social media use did not decrease after the pandemic ended. During this time, many people used social media to connect with friends and stay on trend, like 94 percent of the La Roche student population. Twenty-eight percent of students said that they use social media to share their thoughts. 

Of the 100 students, 60 said they spend too much time on social media and resulting, 50 percent have deleted their media apps. If the student participants answered yes to ever deleting these apps, the survey asked them to explain why. 

Thirty-one percent of these students are upperclassmen, likely because they are more aware of the damaging, dangerous, and long-term effects of social media.

 Of the total number of sample students who have ever deleted their platforms 29 of 100 said they did this because they lost interest in the trend. 

One senior who said they use social media for three to five hours per day wrote, “Snapchat makes me crazy.” Other students who have deleted their social media before said that they “needed a break,” that the apps are toxic, or that it negatively contributed to their lives. 

The survey asked students to indicate how many hours they spend on social media per day.

Forty of 100 students said they are satisfied by the amount of time they spend on social media. Forty-four of 100 students who use social media said they think they use it too much. An additional 16 percent of students who said they use social media too much use it for 5 or more hours per day.

Forty-two percent of La Roche students said that their social media use has increased since starting college. Twenty-five percent said their use decreased, and 33 percent said they noticed no change in their use of social media.  

Sixty-five percent of students said they frequently comment, like, post, and share on social media platforms. More students, at 72 percent, admitted to social media influencing some of their decisions and purchases.