Mobile News Apps and the Obligated College Student

By Marisa Pilla

With college students being under so much pressure to succeed, you would think students would feel obligated to always be connected in their world around them.  But a recent study conducted at the University of Maryland showed that might not be the case.

The study, conducted last month, partially focused on mobile news apps and any sort of feeling of obligate a student felt to use them. The study wanted to see if there was any connection with the major of a student and how obligated that student felt to use that app.

Over 140 students participated in the survey, the majority, 81% were females. These participants answered an array of questions regarding the types of mobile news apps they use, how often they use them and if they have them because they feel like they have to because of their major. The top five majors reported were Business/Finance 24%, Communications 15.6%, Biology/Pre-med 15.6%, Psychology 13.5%, and Arts and Humanities with 11.5%.

When asked what type of news/media app they use the most out of traditional news, sports, weather and entertainment, the majority said they use their weather apps the most. Traditional apps came in third with 14%.  The study also showed that the students used their apps either three to four times a day, or eight times or more, both results yielded 28% of the results.

The research team hoped to find some sort of correlation between a student’s major and the obligation they felt to use their mobile news apps because of their major. On a scale of 1 to 5, with 1 being the least obligated, the average answer reported was a 2. When the students were asked the reason behind their news apps, 55% said it was to keep in touch with their surroundings, which can show that the news that they are interested in does not have anything to do with their college major.

Marisa Pilla, a member of the research team that conducted the survey said that they wish they could change a few things about the results. For starters, she wishes that more journalism students took the survey, because she feels that they might have a different opinion about news apps than a Business major would. Also, Pilla expressed that she hoped that she had a more even distribution of gender. “An overwhelming majority of the participants were females, and I do truly believe that things would have ended up different if there were more male participation.”

While nothing significant was proven by this research, what was proven is that news apps are everywhere in this day and age. Whether it is obligation that is fueling the fire, or sheer curiosity, college students are staying in touch with the world around them, even if it is for only three to four times a day.