Socializing has been a major part of college life since the first kegger, and now hanging out with friends is even seeping into students’ media usage. A new quarterly pop culture survey from Youth Trends, the Ramsey, N.J., research firm, finds that among college kids, social media of all sorts are hot. Social networking, of course, has long been a college pastime, but the trend is also being seen across other media. The rising video games are those that can be played by multiple participants, like “Guitar Hero,” and Youth Trends reports that viewing parties are popular for top shows like “Grey’s Anatomy” and “Lost.” Youth Trends found that college kids spend about 37 hours per week in total with media, with the web leading the way at nearly 13 hours per week just for entertainment, not counting academic pursuits. Josh Weil, co-founder and partner at Youth Trends, talks to Media Life about the rise of Facebook, the decline of MySpace, and why TV viewing may never catch on cell phones.

What did you find most interesting or most surprising about this survey?
 
With respect to the top web destinations, we continued to be impressed with Facebook’s performance. Just when we thought they hit a pinnacle in the fourth-quarter ‘07 wave, they come in with even stronger numbers this most recent wave.

To say that more than two thirds of college students rank Facebook as their first, second or third favorite web site is pretty impressive.
 
Without a doubt the Facebook platform was able to retain its exclusive “collegiate equity” even when it decided to open up to non-college students, and certainly the launch of Facebook’s open platform to third-party developers has resonated extremely well among the audience.
 
The typical college kid on Facebook has downloaded at least eight apps to their profiles; we’d have to imagine that’s higher than their average among all members.

On the music front, it’s fascinating to see such a wide variety of artists and acts represented. This is counterintuitive to the thinking that this demographic is a relatively homogenous group of people, I mean come on, you even have country represented (Brad Paisley) and it’s not Carrie Underwood.
 
Finally, I’d keep an eye out for the next wave of video game releases under the “social gaming” genre.

The notion that kids are holed up in their dorm rooms or apartments with all of the lights off playing “Grand Theft Auto” through the wee hours of the night is passé. Now, it’s more about group play, and that’s why you see titles like “Rock Band” and “Guitar Hero” showing up on their top 10 lists.
 

What do the most popular media selections among college students (“Grey’s Anatomy,” ESPN the Magazine, Cosmo, etc.) have in common?
 
Perhaps it’s not so much they have in common with another as opposed to what they possess that their competition lacks.

For the top TV shows like “Grey’s,” “The Office” and “Lost,” it’s their ability to draw in small groups of loyal viewers. We call these kids “social television viewers.” They’re watching these programs live (the first time they air) on a regular basis with two to five other friends. It’s really a social activity disguised as media consumption.
 
As for the magazine titles like ESPN The Magazine among men or Cosmo among women, it’s a bit more challenging to make a comparison. The analogy has always been guys are to sports as women are to relationships and sex. Not much has changed. The top two magazine titles among men are ESPN the Magazine and SI, and Cosmo reigns as the top magazine title for women.
 

MySpace dropped off the men's top 10 web destinations during the most recent quarter. Do you think that's a temporary blip or part of a greater trend?
 
Truth be told, we’ve never seen MySpace come in any higher than the fifth spot. The fact that it missed out making the men’s list during the most recent wave is not really that surprising, they barely made the men’s list in the fourth quarter ‘07 wave (coming in tied for eighth position).
 
That said, if you look at our teen top 10 list, you’ll still see MySpace near the top with Google, Yahoo and Facebook. For one reason or another MySpace never really stuck with the college crowd--it was (and still is) popular with teens and popular with twentysomethings, but not among the 18- to 24-year-olds. We don’t think it’s a blip. Their drop off among this demographic has been building for some time now.

Is social networking generally as hot among college students as it was last year at this time?
 
Absolutely, for basically the same reasons I mention above. You should not underestimate the addition of 10,000-plus applications that have been created for Facebook profiles. Many of them are simple in nature, but wildly time-consuming and great procrastination tools, and we all know how much this audience likes to put things off.

Why study for that big economics test when I can compare movie tastes with my friends on Facebook?
 
At some point, though, and it is probably not too far out, we’ll reach a level that cannot be sustained. We think the advent of mobile social networking will most likely end up taking away from at least some of time students are spending online using sites like Facebook.
 

We often see new web trends emerging among young people that later catch on with the general population. What sort of trends are you seeing in this area right now that you think could make the transition?
 
Mind you it’s not just online trends that spill upwards, we’ve seen it in several other categories like fashion and music.

Online event and party planning apps are hugely popular with this crowd right now, especially among the women. It’s not a stretch to think thirty- and fortysomething women around the country won’t be using these same apps to plan their monthly book group get-togethers or their kid’s birthday parties, etc.
 
We think at some point you will start to see certain organizations, causes and even school districts emulate the actions of college students, especially those involved in a Greek society or a club, when it comes to raising funds. It might be one of the best-kept secrets around right now, but thy way this audience leverages the internet to create targeted/localized awareness for a fundraising event is quite impressive. Both large and small organizations could certainly gain some insights following the actions of this crowd.
 
On the new media/online video front, we can say with confidence that the audience is much more apt to consume long-form professional video on their computers as opposed to their iPods or cell phones.

Short form is another story, but for the most part college kids have a voracious appetite for streaming TV shows and movies on their computers but have shown little interest in long-form mobile media consumption. This trend does not bode well for those that believe people will view and have a strong interest in viewing 30- to 60-minute videos on a 1- or 2-inch screen.
 

Do college kids spend more or less time with media than the average person?
 
I don’t know, what's average these days?

We’d have to imagine that for certain media types students over-index against other demographic segments and for other media they tend to consume less.

The typical student watches 10 hours of television each week, and if you include online streaming/viewing it would increase to 10.7 hours.

They spend 12.9 hours online per week for entertainment-related purposes, spend 7.2 hours playing video games, 4.3 hours listening to the radio and less than an hour and a half reading magazines.