Uses and perceptions of Tuenti and Facebook among students from the University of the Basque Country

Previous studies about social networks have provided information about their penetration, frequency of use, and importance across the different sectors of the population. Nevertheless, these studies have ignored some more specific questions. This analysis intends to fill the gap left by commercial research and focuses on a strategic public: the university students who will become the future professionals. Based on several focus groups and a survey applied to more than 650 university students, this article analyses students’ perceptions of the two leading social networks in Spain (Tuenti and Facebook), students’ knowledge about the legal conditions of use of these networks, and the activities they do while connected to those sites. The results show that the two social networks have very different brand images among students, that there is a great ignorance among students about the legal conditions of use of the networks, and that students’ consumption habits are based on multitasking and include activities related to television.