Survey: 8 in 10 Gen Zers Say Social Media Distracts From Schoolwork

75% of female students indicate social platforms drive comparison among peers

Tallo, an online platform that connects students with tailor-made opportunities and also helps its partners understand the preferences of early talent, found in a recent survey that Gen Z has a surprising perspective on social media when it comes to education.

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Survey: 8 in 10 Gen Zers Say Social Media Distracts From Schoolwork, 75% of female students indicate social platforms drive comparison among peers, more @apptallo

While students spend a great deal of time on social media, they aren’t necessarily there to connect with schools or employers. Schools and employers need to look to other online platforms that are geared toward college and career connections, like Tallo, to meet with students looking for opportunities.

“Schools and employers need to understand that digital natives are going to be interacting with their organizations in a much different way than generations before them,” said Casey Welch, CEO and co-founder of Tallo. “They should consider new ways to meet these students where they spend most of their time, and that’s online.”

The survey showed that 82% of Gen Zers said that social media had proven to be a distraction to them while doing schoolwork. It also revealed that 3 in 4 female respondents said that social media has caused them to compare themselves to peers, while only 56% of males said the same.

Students remain divided on the idea of colleges reaching out to them through their social media accounts, with 54% of respondents saying they would be comfortable with it and about 34% saying they would be uncomfortable with it. Despite this, a majority (71%) of digital natives stated they would prefer contact with colleges to occur via email, which also proved to be the most common method of communication used by schools themselves.

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Despite the questionable impact on their wellbeing, these platforms pervade nearly all aspects of students’ lives, and are even utilized in their college searches. 59% of surveyed students said that they follow prospective colleges and universities on Instagram. This information could provide schools with useful insight when it comes to recruitment and engaging with prospective enrollees through social media.

The most popular platform among those surveyed was TikTok, which 34% of respondents said they spent the most time on. After that was Instagram, which 26% of Gen Zers said they spend the most time on. Facebook was used the most by only 4% of respondents, and Twitter was the least used, with only 2% of students spending most of their time on it.