This Year’s College Freshmen Have Fewer Parties and Friends, More Sadness
A recent report out of UCLA found that college freshmen across the country are a bunch of sad, Godless, liberal, straight-edged loners who’d rather type than talk.
In other words, the study found that freshmen aren’t partying as much as they used to, are spending less times with friends, and are logging more and more hours on social networks. They’re also more likely to choose “none’’ when asked to pick a religious preference, and more report frequently feeling depressed than ever before.
College is starting to sound a lot more like Her than Animal House.
The statistical differences between 2014 and previous freshman classes are significant. In 1987, 37.9 percent of incoming college students spent at least 16 hours a week hanging out with friends, while 18.1 percent reported spending five hours or less with friends.
Fast forward 17 years, and a scant 18 percent reported spending 16 or more hours with friends, and a whopping 38.8 percent said they spent less than five hours a week with friends.
They’re also not drinking as much before they get to their venerable institutions of higher learning. In 1981, 74.2 percent of students said they “frequently’’ or “occasionally’’ drank beer during their senior year of high school. But by 2014, only about a third of students had. And wine and hard alcohol consumption dropped among high school seniors from around 70 percent to less than 40 percent.
However, it doesn’t mean freshman aren’t drinking once they get to college. According to the report, about 60 percent of college kids drank in the past month, and a little over 40 percent of students reported binge-drinking in that same period of time.
“It is clear that college students still drink significantly,’’ the study states. “However, students are arriving on campus with much less prior experience consuming alcohol than their peers from 20 or 30 years ago. Such changes may have important consequences for alcohol education and other prevention programs.’’
Religion is also on the decline. In 1971, only about 15 percent of freshmen said they had no religious affiliation. By 2014, that number rose to 27 percent.
Students are also leaning left more frequently when it comes to politics. Today’s freshmen are more likely to support gay marriage, believe in climate change, and advocate for preferential treatment during the admissions process for minorities than ever before.
The social statistics raise a question: What are students doing if they’re not messing around with their buddies in student lounges? Messing around with them on the interwebs: Since 2007, the amount of freshmen who reported spending six hours or more on social networks each week increased from 18.9 percent to 27.2 percent.
And freshman are sadder than ever before: Students who “frequently’’ felt depressed rose to 9.5 percent, 3.4 percentage points higher than the previous low point in 2009.
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