Smartphone use among college students has almost doubled since early last year, a study by a researcher at Ball State University found.
The study confirms what has become common knowledge: cellphones are almost ubiquitous on college campuses, with 99.8 percent of students owning one or more. But in the national survey of about 500 students—which has been conducted twice a year since 2005—new details emerged on the kind of phones they own and how they use them.
Of those phone-owning students, 49 percent now have smartphones, compared with 38 percent last October and 27 percent in February 2009.
Text messaging has overtaken not just e-mail but also instant messaging in popularity. Ninety-seven percent of students use text messages as their main form of communication, as opposed to 30 percent for e-mail and 25 percent for instant messaging.
Approximately 90 percent of smartphone owners use their phones to access the Internet. Ninety-seven percent use their phones to take and send photos, while 87 percent of users take and send videos.
Michael Hanley, a Ball State journalism professor who conducted the study, said he sees a correlation between the rise of smartphones and the increase in text messaging.
“It’s really been the last three years that text messaging really, really spiked,” said Mr. Hanley. “With feature phones, you could text, but it wasn’t really easy to do because of the small handsets and small screens.”
Mr. Hanley said he foresees the rise of voice-to-text technology as a rival to traditional text messaging. He is already hearing buzz about it from his students, whom he credits as the first to adopt new technologies.
“They’re really the innovators in these kinds of things,” he said. “They get it real quick.”
4 Responses to Student Smartphone Use Doubles; Instant Messaging Loses Favor
lexalexander - June 18, 2010 at 8:22 am
Those with emergency communications systems such as e2 also should take advantage of its immense non-emergency capabilities, such as creating professor-administered message groups for classes. We’re probably using about 3% of our system’s capability, a number I hope to jack up significantly when students return in August.
mdzehnder - June 18, 2010 at 11:12 am
I can’t express how stunned I am by these figures. Of course I knew cell phones were ubiquitous, but the sheer volume is overwhelming. 90% for internet, 97% for texting and 87% for videos? Unbelievable. I adopted a cell phone only when I went to college (age 21, I am now 27), I have never had a smartphone or internet–enabled phone and have no desire to (and even if I did I would have no desire to spend the $100+/month it would cost). My current phone does not even have a camera, and I had to specifically search one out that did not (in over seven years of cell phone ownership I have had only one true use for a cellphone camera–taking pictures of your meal out and blogging them does not count as a use in my opinion–and that was to take pictures at the scene of an accident, pictures for which I ultimately ended up having no need). Moreover, my phone has been dead now for over a week (I lost my charger and have not yet located it) and to be perfectly frank I don’t miss it a bit. Naturally and obviously cell phones have certain basic uses that are quite good (roadside emergencies, communication of time-sensitive information), but my experience is that rather than simply using these tools for these purposes, they rather cause our understanding of what falls into these types of catagories to expand. Morever, the industry has not evolved to the point where the range of options is broad enough to suit someone who only wants the bare minimum–everything is geared toward the early-adopting, heavy-using technophile. I’m waiting for the market base to become broad enough that companies start being able to support offerings that fewer people use–a bare bones service that will offer widespread coverage, minimal but highly functional features, and most importantly a low price point that reflects the limited usage.
mongooseresearch - June 18, 2010 at 2:02 pm
This outstanding research. Now the question is: How can we leverage this existing behavior to improve enrollment outcomes, increase student satisfaction and engagement in the college experience, and bolster alumni participation and giving. I know Blackboard has created a mobile product to compliment the academic experience, St. Mary’s University (TX) and St. John Fisher College use text messaging from Mongoose Research to better communicate with prospective students.For a good example:http://www.stmarytx.edu/admission/mobileupdates
techbender - June 22, 2010 at 4:54 am
In my own personal experience, such a high number is unsurprising.Teaching to students of typically lower-income brackets, I find that the overwhelming majority of students have cellphones (pre-paid), and due to the nature of my work, I spend a great deal of time chasing up students by phone. With the recent release of a 3rd cellphone network, I’m now juggling a not-so-short list of dead, disconnected and unused cellphone numbers as the novelty of this new competitor has slowly worn off.In this majority, there is also a small but growing number thathave no landline or home phone, and our own internal metrics show that such students are much less likely to complete their courses successfully.As cellphone numbers change much more fluidly than home phones, keeping track of valid details is a nightmare, that I fear is only going to get worse as we become more dependant on our students having enough cash and battery to communicate with us.