Does U.S. College Students’ Social Media Use Affect School E-Mail Avoidance and Campus Involvement?

This study examines how U.S. college students’ social media use affects their school e-mail avoidance and campus involvement. We found that text-messaging is the most frequently used medium for college students in general. However, communication and business students are more likely to use social media as the primary communication medium than other majors and they are more likely to be involved in the campus community. We created a typology of two social media user types by the specific combination of social media outlets they use and the frequency of use in those outlets as “instant communicators” and “online content curators” based on factor analysis. Increased use of social media leads to lower school e-mail avoidance. Upper class students are more likely to avoid school e-mails. Facebook is the only social media outlet positively related to campus involvement. Implications of the findings on the use of social media for college educators and marketers and effective reach of college students are discussed.