Insights

Weekly Insights: Vaccine Selfies

From vaccine selfies to political awareness, here are this week’s top college student insights.

Vaccine Selfies

With COVID-19 vaccines becoming available to more Americans, a new survey of 650 undergraduates finds that students don’t feel strongly about the vaccine selfies taking over social media. A majority (59%) of students say they don’t care about the photos, compared to 1 in 5 (20%) who say they love seeing everyone’s vaccine selfies. A small fraction of students (14%) report liking the selfies but say seeing the photos makes them a little jealous, and just 6% hate seeing the selfies.

There is a gender gap, though. Female students are more likely than male students to say they love seeing the vaccine posts (25% vs. 13%), and less likely to say they don’t care either way (53% vs. 65%).

How do you feel about people posting vaccine selfies on social media?

Few students plan on posting a selfie when they get vaccinated, suggesting that the trend is more popular among older adults. Just 8% of students who plan to get vaccinated say they’ll definitely post one, compared to 63% who say they definitely won’t. Male students who will get vaccinated are more likely than their female classmates to say they definitely won’t post a vaccine selfie (74% vs. 54%).

Political Awareness

A new survey of 1,088 undergraduates finds that one-quarter (24%) say they can’t name a single U.S. senator. Another quarter (26%) say they can name one or two, compared to just 10% who believe they can name more than 10 senators. However, female students are twice as likely as male students to say they can’t name any U.S. senators (32% vs. 15%).

___________________________

Methodology: All surveys were designed and conducted by College Pulse. Interviews were conducted among a sample of full-time and part-time students attending colleges or universities in the U.S. who are part of College Pulse’s American College Student Panel.

View More Research!

Like what you see? Click here to view more of our public research on College Students.

College Pulse app survey screen

In College? Be Counted!

Participate in surveys, get rewarded, and help highlight the voices of students nationwide. Your input shapes research that matters—join today!

College Pulse app rewards screen