Do I need social media at uni?
Hello,
I am going to be starting university in september this year. I have never had a social media account (Snapchat, Instagram etc) as I have never felt the need for one and have always found alternative ways to speak to friends (e.g. through Whatsapp etc) and I have never felt that lacking social media has affected my friendships as people have always been understanding. However, as the vast majority of people do have some sort of account and people nowadays are less likely to give out phone numbers and more likely to give out their socials I feel like I need an account for before I start uni to make it easier to make friends and meet people especially as I would be moving to a new city? Is this something people would generally agree with or do you think I could continue without? Any advice would be great. Thank you
I am going to be starting university in september this year. I have never had a social media account (Snapchat, Instagram etc) as I have never felt the need for one and have always found alternative ways to speak to friends (e.g. through Whatsapp etc) and I have never felt that lacking social media has affected my friendships as people have always been understanding. However, as the vast majority of people do have some sort of account and people nowadays are less likely to give out phone numbers and more likely to give out their socials I feel like I need an account for before I start uni to make it easier to make friends and meet people especially as I would be moving to a new city? Is this something people would generally agree with or do you think I could continue without? Any advice would be great. Thank you
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As you say, social media platforms are common communication tools these days, so it probably would be worth signing up. You don't need to use them regularly for posting about yourself though - just put some basic stuff on there and then use them to communicate with your new friends. Enjoy university.
Original post by Anonymous
Hello,
I am going to be starting university in september this year. I have never had a social media account (Snapchat, Instagram etc) as I have never felt the need for one and have always found alternative ways to speak to friends (e.g. through Whatsapp etc) and I have never felt that lacking social media has affected my friendships as people have always been understanding. However, as the vast majority of people do have some sort of account and people nowadays are less likely to give out phone numbers and more likely to give out their socials I feel like I need an account for before I start uni to make it easier to make friends and meet people especially as I would be moving to a new city? Is this something people would generally agree with or do you think I could continue without? Any advice would be great. Thank you
I am going to be starting university in september this year. I have never had a social media account (Snapchat, Instagram etc) as I have never felt the need for one and have always found alternative ways to speak to friends (e.g. through Whatsapp etc) and I have never felt that lacking social media has affected my friendships as people have always been understanding. However, as the vast majority of people do have some sort of account and people nowadays are less likely to give out phone numbers and more likely to give out their socials I feel like I need an account for before I start uni to make it easier to make friends and meet people especially as I would be moving to a new city? Is this something people would generally agree with or do you think I could continue without? Any advice would be great. Thank you
I'm in the same position as you except that I'm in A levels. The new friends that I made do not really use WhatsApp so they want me to use Instagram, Snapchat or messenger. I'm not sure what I will do now but I really do not want social media.
Original post by NazifaNawer
I'm in the same position as you except that I'm in A levels. The new friends that I made do not really use WhatsApp so they want me to use Instagram, Snapchat or messenger. I'm not sure what I will do now but I really do not want social media.
Yep im in the exact same position as both of you. I think I might just get snapchat/Instagram but just use it for the group chats, and carry on using WhatsApp for eveything else
Nice to know I'm not the only teen in the country not using social media!
Original post by NazifaNawer
I'm in the same position as you except that I'm in A levels. The new friends that I made do not really use WhatsApp so they want me to use Instagram, Snapchat or messenger. I'm not sure what I will do now but I really do not want social media.
It's nice to know it's not just me. Yes I found that too, I guess I probably missed out on a couple new friendships in yr12 due to having no socials to give to anyone but the friends I have made do understand
Original post by JohnB1
As you say, social media platforms are common communication tools these days, so it probably would be worth signing up. You don't need to use them regularly for posting about yourself though - just put some basic stuff on there and then use them to communicate with your new friends. Enjoy university.
Yeah that's probably what I'm leaning towards at the moment, I don't want to miss out on making friends at uni just because I don't have any accounts and as you said I don't necessarily need to regularly post myself but just use them as communication apps
Original post by Emmmaaaa...
Yep im in the exact same position as both of you. I think I might just get snapchat/Instagram but just use it for the group chats, and carry on using WhatsApp for eveything else
Nice to know I'm not the only teen in the country not using social media!
Nice to know I'm not the only teen in the country not using social media!
Yes it's become a necessary aspect in life but I'm glad I'm not the only one. Let me know what you do
You're probably best to wait until you get there and see what societies etc. you join, I've found it varies a lot by uni and by group within that uni, and you probably don't want to end up with a bunch of random useless accounts if you don't like social media in the first place! WhatsApp is generally fine for making friends, so that's a decent starting point, and will carry you through until you work out if you need/want anything else
(As an example, at my current uni I've found Discord and WhatsApp are pretty essential for socialising and staying informed, Instagram/Facebook are kind of useful, and Snapchat is useless. At my old uni most information was on Facebook, people chatted on Snapchat, and nobody really used WhatsApp/Discord/Instagram at all.)
(As an example, at my current uni I've found Discord and WhatsApp are pretty essential for socialising and staying informed, Instagram/Facebook are kind of useful, and Snapchat is useless. At my old uni most information was on Facebook, people chatted on Snapchat, and nobody really used WhatsApp/Discord/Instagram at all.)
I'd stay open to the idea. I got a lot of use of of class/society facebook groups for discussion and study help and I would have missed out on a lot if I didn't, and you also get info like date/holidays/closures/new stuff updates from your uni through them too.
I saw plenty of people just sign up for that alone and put next to no personal info on it or keep their personal account separate.
I saw plenty of people just sign up for that alone and put next to no personal info on it or keep their personal account separate.
Original post by Emmmaaaa...
Yep im in the exact same position as both of you. I think I might just get snapchat/Instagram but just use it for the group chats, and carry on using WhatsApp for eveything else
Nice to know I'm not the only teen in the country not using social media!
Nice to know I'm not the only teen in the country not using social media!
Same! Glad to know I'm not alone
. WhatsApp is my best friend.Original post by Anonymous
It's nice to know it's not just me. Yes I found that too, I guess I probably missed out on a couple new friendships in yr12 due to having no socials to give to anyone but the friends I have made do understand
My friends understand too but there are a few who seem to be annoyed at it
Original post by Anonymous
Hello,
I am going to be starting university in september this year. I have never had a social media account (Snapchat, Instagram etc) as I have never felt the need for one and have always found alternative ways to speak to friends (e.g. through Whatsapp etc) and I have never felt that lacking social media has affected my friendships as people have always been understanding. However, as the vast majority of people do have some sort of account and people nowadays are less likely to give out phone numbers and more likely to give out their socials I feel like I need an account for before I start uni to make it easier to make friends and meet people especially as I would be moving to a new city? Is this something people would generally agree with or do you think I could continue without? Any advice would be great. Thank you
I am going to be starting university in september this year. I have never had a social media account (Snapchat, Instagram etc) as I have never felt the need for one and have always found alternative ways to speak to friends (e.g. through Whatsapp etc) and I have never felt that lacking social media has affected my friendships as people have always been understanding. However, as the vast majority of people do have some sort of account and people nowadays are less likely to give out phone numbers and more likely to give out their socials I feel like I need an account for before I start uni to make it easier to make friends and meet people especially as I would be moving to a new city? Is this something people would generally agree with or do you think I could continue without? Any advice would be great. Thank you
Hey there!
It is true that everyone has social media accounts these days. Especially at university, I do think it would be beneficial to you to have at least one of the main ones. Most of my first year groupchats including my course and flat were on Snapchat, so that might be a good one to go for. It's more so to cover yourself when starting to make new friends and then when you're all settled in, you can always tell them that you prefer other means of communication. You do find that some university chats are on WhatsApp anyway, especially the earliest ones. I originally found all the WhatsApp and Snapchat groups through Facebook as they usually have freshers pages on there so even if you wanted to start with Facebook just to find people, it would be a good option to go for. I mostly have all my university groups on Snapchat but that's just because that's what everyone else preferred, it isn't my personal preference.
Hope this helped!
Lucy - Digital Student Ambassador SHU
It helps a bit instagram or Facebook at the very least is good to know what’s going on on campus and for things like leisure’s due to adverse weather things like that if you follow the university’s official account it also is good for society stuff too it’s not required but it helps.
Original post by Bean_cat
I was the same tbh, still don't use social media except discord and whatsapp for uni
Do you think it's impacted your uni experience?
Original post by Trinculo
You will never be more Gen Z hipster than a Gen Z hipster using social media to tell other people that they don't use social media, and to ask on social media if they need social media.
You think the student room is social media?
Original post by Anonymous
You think the student room is social media?
Yeah exactly, idk what they are on about
It's not like I'm gonna go to uni and suggest tsr as a way to communicate with the people I meet
Original post by Emmmaaaa...
Yep im in the exact same position as both of you. I think I might just get snapchat/Instagram but just use it for the group chats, and carry on using WhatsApp for eveything else
Nice to know I'm not the only teen in the country not using social media!
Nice to know I'm not the only teen in the country not using social media!
Yeah up until the other day I was solely using Whatsapp/Discord to communicate with friends and family but I finally caved in and got an insta and it's actually quite fun to use (i mainly just follow my fav kpop artists/musicians) You don't have to use it all the time, and tbh it's better for your mental health if you don't
Original post by Anonymous
Do you think it's impacted your uni experience?
definitely not, I'm still aware of stuff happening on the course and I'm able to communicate easily with my friends, I've also used these for group assignments too
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