Sophomore Joe Kyburz, better known as Joe from Twitter, checks his Twitter account as often as he can, both on his phone and laptop. He scrolls through his feed skimming hundreds of tweets, replying to his friends and only retweeting those which are worthy. Sometimes he checks his follower count, in order to keep his follower to following ratio high. Though he has accounts on other social media sites, Twitter is his territory.

While students may have accounts on multiple sites, their focus is not on all of them. As new sites become popular, older ones are visited less frequently.

Senior Quasay Multani’s favorite site is Instagram, because he said that he “can post hipster pictures.” Other students agree that Instagram is the their favorite social media site, like senior Quinn Collins who enjoys looking at other people’s pictures. In fact, 38.3 percent of students, in a survey by The Patriot on Oct. 21, prefer Instagram’s picture-heavy content to other types of social media, making it the best rated site.

Twitter also was seen to be popular among students as 68.1 percent have an account. One of the things that makes Twitter unique is its short blurbs, which are quick and to the point. “As a Twitter veteran, I find it a seamless means of communication amongst a group of friends and an easy way to get a message across or tell a joke,” Kyburz said.

However, a student answering The Patriot survey on social media wrote, “I think having a Twitter makes you more impulsive. Also, it diminishes the vocabulary and quality of writing because you are limited to 140 characters.”

Another form of social media is Snapchat, an app for smart phones which sends time-sensitive photos between friends. 75.8 percent of students have an account, but the initial popularity has faded. Only 6.4 percent of students ranked it as their most used account. Still, it is among the more popular forms of social media with 45 percent of students ranking it as one of their top three most visited sites, in comparison with Instagram’s 69.1 percent and Twitter’s 56.4 percent.

Junior Marc Griffin said that Tumblr was the least popular social media site at JC, but mentioned that this could be because it is not often talked about in school. On the survey, it received a vote as one of the three most used sites 33 percent of the time.

While 83.5 percent of students have a Facebook, most agree that Facebook is not popular among high school students anymore. Multani surmises that this is because Facebook is seen as “out-of-date” and also because the older generations, including parents, use it.

Kyburz was amused by the recent #WhyILeftFacebook trending on Twitter. He agrees that now that many older people are on Facebook, teenagers like it less. Only 12 percent of students ranked Facebook as their most used form of social media.

Pinterest, a form of blogging that allows the users to save pictures, ideas, and recipes, was also shown to be less popular than other sites. Only 47.3 percent of students have accounts, the lowest percentage. In fact, just 2.1 percent of students ranked it as their most used site in the survey.

The least used site was said to be Vine, a site where six second videos are posted. None of the surveyed students ranked it as the most used form of social media and only 19.1 percent ranked it as one of their top three. There are a handful of students and teachers who avoid all forms of social media.

Math teacher Sean Connolly prefers not to use any social media. “I would rather pick up the phone and call [my friends and family] or see them face to face,” he said.

One answer to the survey simply stated that, “[social media]’s your choice. You can always remove yourself from it.”

Madison Meyer is an In-Depth Editor for The Patriot and jcpatriot.com.