Student Monitor Report: iPods More Cool Than Beer

By Mae Kowalke

TMCnet Associate Editor

 

If a recent Student Monitor survey of 1,200 college students at 100 U.S. schools is to be believed, undergrads now think it is more “cool” to be holding an iPod music player than a beer.

 

Seventy-three percent of the students surveyed indicated that iPods are more “in” than any other item on a list of fashionable items and activities associated with college life, AP reports. The list included bar hopping, text messaging, and downloading music.

 

That means iPod’s popularity has grown by 14 percent from its ranking in the same survey last year (when 59 percent of students put the music player at the top of the list).

 

Student Monitor has been conducting the survey for 18 years. Only one other time was beer knocked out of its #1 spot on the list of “in” things—the Internet took the prize in 1997.