Technology Survey of College Students: Highlights February 2008
About This Report
Home Page: Adults between the ages of 18 and 34 have disparate attitudes about technology ownership and, use-attitudes that are unrelated to their demographics.
Main Byte: Product developers, technology-service providers, retailers, and parents alike can benefit from an increased understanding of this important consumer group.
Save file: Although the majority of college and university students may be tech savvy, their adoption, ownership, and use of technology products and activities follow the standard VALS™ innovation-diffusion pattern.
Technology Survey of College Students: Highlights, provides insights about college and university students' activities and attitudes about a wide range of technology products. The report sheds light on a number of this group's behaviors and dispels two opinions that the popular press reports: Young adults are avid consumers of the majority of technology products, and high percentages of young adults receive technology products as gifts.
During the fourth quarter of 2007, SRI Consulting Business Intelligence conducted a survey using our VALS™ Survey Web site-a first in the history of our program. Because VALS information is in the majority of academic texts about consumer behavior, a large portion of online VALS survey -takers are college students. Because general population surveys do not recruit respondents from group living quarters, such as college dormitories, our site is uniquely positioned to recruit a robust sample of the next generation of U.S. leaders and reportedly tech-crazy consumers.
Table of Contents
| About the Sample | 2 |
| Survey Highlights | 3 |
| Computer Access, Ownership, and Use | 6 |
| Internet Connections | 9 |
| Online Activities | |
| Social Networking | 11 |
| Blogging | 12 |
| Authoring | 13 |
| Music and Video | 14 |
| Search Engines | 15 |
| Dark-Side Behaviors | 16 |
| Gaming | 17 |
| Education | 18 |
| Second Life | 19 |
| Technology-Related Attitudes | 21 |
| Cell Phones: Ownership and Add-Ons | 22 |
| Cell Phones: Features | 23 |
| Cell Phones: Activities | 24 |
| Ownership of Other Technology Products | 25 |
| Appendixes | |
| A: Methodology | 27 |
| B: Represented Colleges and Universities | 28 |