More on Students and The Web

Here’s another study that corroborates Tuesday’s post about the changing media habits of students. This study by Boston-based marketing firm Y2M, surveys the thoughts, trends, preferences, concerns and technology usage of students graduating from college.

Those who have had a chance to read Malcolm Gladwell’s excellent book, The Tipping Point, will certainly recognize a tipping point here for students and the Web. According to the report, the percentage of students who used the Web to purchase things went from about 21 percent in 2004 to almost 80 percent in 2005. The percentage of students who get their news from the Internet went from 20 percent in 2004 to 78 percent in 2005. Students utilizing online banking soared from 19 percent in 2004 to about 71 percent in 2005. This is substantial growth.

Another large change was the number of students who use job websites to look for employment. Students posting their resume on Monster.com increased from 37 percent in 2004 to 62 percent in 2005. In all, 69 percent of students posted their resume on one or more job-related websites in 2005.

All this is an example of how integrated the Web has become in the lives of today’s graduating college students. As they find jobs and begin careers, these are the same Web habits that astute marketers will note as today’s student becomes tomorrow’s consumer with increasing disposable income.