[QDaily Big Survey] What Do College Students Make of the Virtual World Inside Their Phones?

More than 50 face-to-face interviews and 2,000 online survey responses — we tried to give you some clues for understanding a group that has clearly become very important.

Editor's note: In June, QDaily launched a special feature built around interviews and a series of short stories. We sat down with more than 50 college students to talk about how they spend money, how they think about work and love, how they handle their own anxiety and confusion, and how they use the apps on their phones. All of them are current undergraduates or recent graduates, from Nanjing University, Sichuan University, South China Agricultural University, Shanghai International Studies University, Tianjin Normal University, Peking University, the University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, and elsewhere.

At the same time we put out an online survey on the same subject, open to students at any university; 2,108 people have answered so far. You can also see what a larger group thinks about these "grand questions."

**QDaily did not start this series to produce a statistical report. It grew out of one plain question — "How do college students spend money now?" — which set off a whole chain of further curiosity.**To be precise: we use our interviewees' answers to put across certain views. They are not statistically representative, but they do show something.

The third piece in the series, which you are about to read, is about how college students use the apps on their phones (as far as we found). We welcome your comments.

Today a lot of people's worlds are held together by a phone.

A 2016 survey by iResearch put the average Chinese person's phone use at 1.5 hours a day. If that person is a college student, then apart from class and sleep, most of the free time goes to the phone — and that is before counting the phone time during class...

And it is the apps on the phone that connect you to the world.

The college students we interviewed had an average of 44 apps on their phones.

Their day probably starts like this: woken by the phone alarm, check WeChat and Moments, tap away the little red dots on official accounts, confirm the class schedule and the weather, get the fitness app ready, scroll trending Weibo posts on the way to class, scroll the hot-search list while waiting in line at the cafeteria... And keeping an eye on WeChat group messages and new posts from official accounts at all times is the bare minimum of multitasking. Weekends are booked solid too: buy movie tickets on the phone, binge shows on a video app, lose all sense of time in mobile games, browse shopping apps — and if too much money has gone that way, open the mobile banking app and face reality.

Countless companies want college students as customers. During the start of the school year last year we reported on Lu Wenwen, a freshman at the University of Shanghai for Science and Technology, who had barely finished checking in before she had collected flyers and small gifts from 13 companies, Coca-Cola, Asahi Japanese Language School, China Mobile and China Telecom among them. Meizu and Didi even ran buses plastered with giant ads to ferry new students around. Along the way Lu Wenwen was asked to scan QR codes over and over, and she ended up following four official accounts. What the merchants hope comes after the official account is their app.

To attract college students, merchants will happily spend heavily on campus promotion. Take games: the president of Dongli Media, which has run promotions for Tencent and Kingsoft on titles like League of Legends, says a dorm-canvassing team at one school is usually four or five young men. In a week one school gains 2,000 players; at a seven-day retention rate of 50%, that is 1,000 who stay. They charge companies 10 yuan per college student, so covering 100 universities comes to 1 million yuan.

That is only the basic package. The advanced version is earning college students' trust in daily life, which of course costs more. The fiercest fight here is probably between Meituan and Ele.me. Shanghai Jiao Tong University and Shanghai University are where Ele.me began, so that market is relatively settled; the competition is concentrated in the university district around Wujiaochang — Tongji, Fudan and the Shanghai University of Finance and Economics. At those schools an Ele.me order comes with 11 yuan off on the spot, a Meituan order with 15 yuan off plus a free drink; the difference is subsidized to the restaurants by the delivery platforms.

And that only feeds and clothes them. Higher up are the products offering video, selfies, animation — or trying to create a need that did not exist. They want college students to be entertained here, to socialize here, to kill time here, until they graduate and turn into "quality customers."

Those 44 apps are the bridge between the present and the future.

College students may not yet know that they have become the prize in a fight over that future, and that the fight is happening on that one phone.

What is on their phones may matter more to the people competing for them than it does to the phones' owners.

Note: interviewees' year and age are as of the time of the interview.

Whatever Else Goes, the App Nobody Deletes Is Probably the One Everybody Has

For social apps it is definitely WeChat — I check it once an hour. Sometimes a message comes in and I have to look right away. Can't help it. (A senior at Peking University who is starting a business)

I have about 50 apps on my phone. I open social networks every day; games and fitness apps I don't. Weibo, WeChat, Douban and Tieba I open often. Dianping, Meituan and Taobao too, mainly for food delivery and discounts. (Zhang Xiadan, Chinese department, Sichuan University)

WeChat, QQ and Alipay take the most time. I open them every few minutes. Basically whenever I'm not doing anything that matters, whenever I'm bored, whenever the phone is in my hand, I scroll through WeChat and QQ. It has become a habit. (Mr. Sanfenzhi Z)

I only have a dozen or so apps on my phone, not many. The ones I use most are WeChat, Youku, Baidu Maps, Taobao, Alipay and Notes. (Anonymous architecture student, Sichuan University)

They'll Pay for Content — Especially Music and Video

For reading, besides WeChat subscription accounts, I also follow Luoji Siwei... Luoji Siwei put out an app called Dedao, which has books summarized by various readers, some as audio, some as text. Most of it costs money, and the price per item isn't high; someone reads a book and then talks it through, and the audio runs only a few minutes. (Senior, math department, Peking University)

I paid for QQ Music once because I wanted to download a few songs. I signed up for a month, and then it seems to have expired. Next time I hit a song I want and can't download, I might sign up again, but I don't keep it running all the time. (Yao Weijia, senior, Teaching Chinese as a Foreign Language, Shanghai International Studies University)

To watch Descendants of the Sun, I bought an iQiyi membership on Taobao for three yuan. (Yao Weijia)

For music I use QQ Music and Douban FM, just those two, because I really like JJ Lin — his music is all on QQ in high-quality original audio, since the rights went to QQ, so I pick it because of him. (Zhang Xiadan)

Not Every Payment Model Works: Subscriptions Look More Popular

I pay for QQ Music — I always buy the Green Diamond membership. I think paying for music is a good thing, and I like the subscription model, not the per-song model. Something like iTunes, where an album has a set price, I can't accept, because you'd only pay to download a whole album if you were really into it. But if it's a flat monthly fee and you can download 300 songs, you can try all kinds of styles and widen your exploration of music. (Zhang Xiadan)

Freshman year I used Duomi for music, then QQ Music. Now I use NetEase Cloud Music, first because the songs I like are there, and second because the songs it recommends are pretty good. I've bought music packages too — 8 yuan a month, or 45 yuan for six months — and I use it almost every day. I listen to every genre; lately more Korean songs, and since the second half of last year I've barely listened to anything in another language. (Susie, senior, economics, Sichuan University)

With music I mostly download. Buying music costs money, but the membership fee isn't too expensive, and once you're a member you can download, so I bought it... I still buy month by month. A year at a time is cheaper, but I don't use it that much now, so I keep buying monthly. (Tong Haoling, senior, English department, Nanjing University)

I've been paying for QQ Music all along, maybe more than a year now — the paid music package is 15 yuan. Before the revamp there was only the Green Diamond membership at 10 yuan a month; now I sign up for the paid music package alone. I like to download and listen, the lossless version, and if QQ Music doesn't have it I go download it off Weibo. (Sun Shu, architecture department, Sichuan University)

What Decides the Platform Is Still the Content

I watch some American shows on Sohu Video, and Youku too — links always lead to Youku, so I had no choice but to install it. (Advertising department, Peking University)

I basically only listen to a few artists. If I want something else I go to Douban FM and just let it shuffle. (Zhang Xiadan)

I don't much like self-publishing video apps like Miaopai. Since what I mainly watch is TV dramas and variety shows, I use iQiyi more, because it has more to choose from — a while back it had both Ode to Joy and Descendants of the Sun, and before that I watched Kangxi Lai Le on iQiyi too. I spend maybe an hour a day on it, though usually I binge on one particular day. (Susie)

I used to like Xiami for music, but later a lot of songs stopped playing, so I moved to QQ and NetEase — QQ mainly for old songs, NetEase mainly for folk. (Senior, advertising department, Peking University)

I use Tencent Video for Running Man, occasionally LeTV for live soccer, but American shows I download to my computer. (Sun Shu, mathematics department, Sichuan University)

I use Sohu because it has more American shows, but right now I'm using something called Baidu Video — I don't know whether it infringes anyone's copyright, but it lets you download shows other apps can't. (A Fudan accounting student who asked not to be named)

I use NetEase Cloud Music the most, mainly folk and country. I listen on the move, playing it out loud through a Bluetooth speaker. (Bai Cheng'an, senior, fluid mechanics, Peking University)

Listening to music is such a hassle now. One app used to play everything; now there are the copyright problems. I have QQ Music, NetEase Cloud Music and Kugou. (Chen Jing, senior, English department, Nanjing University)

Celebrities Pull People In, and Even More So When Tied to an IP

On Weibo I have a list called "male idols" with 166 people — the whole Korean wave is in there — and another called "sons" with 196 people, all about TFBoys. (Sun Shu)

I don't watch a variety show because I like the show; usually it's about which celebrity is on it. I watched Challengers' Alliance, which was so boring, but Kris Wu was on it, so I sat through the whole episode. I joined a QQ group for Kris Wu fans. Last time one of his films came out, another fan and I had agreed to go together — the cinema was close to school anyway — but then nobody was around to come with me, so I lost interest too.... (Qin Yi, senior, journalism, Nanjing University)

I listen to a lot of music on my phone, only on NetEase Cloud Music. If I want something I'll pay for it — Adele's new album, 25 yuan. Most of what I listen to is folk; the rights aren't policed as tightly there, and there's NetEase's personal radio station too. (Gao Wa)

I also downloaded a music app called Echo, which has some independent musicians and often recommends good songs. When I'm studying I put on foreign-language songs, Korean ones, really noisy stuff. I don't understand a word, but it keeps me awake. (Qin Yi)

It's Content Too, But News... Comes Off Weak

I don't read the news. If you tell me about it, then I know — when I'm chatting with people. I've just never had the habit. (Guo Hao, journalism department, Nanjing University)

When I was studying journalism I read the news every day; once I stopped studying it, I read much less.... Reading news on a phone, I find it alarmist. Go look at Weibo or wherever, it's all clickbait headlines, a whiff of playing to the gallery, and the credibility is low. And the headline story is always a celebrity, or some especially vicious-looking incident.... Honestly, I don't much care about that stuff.

I used to have the Tencent News app, but Tencent News did it even worse than Weibo, so I uninstalled it. What I find least comprehensible is that plenty of news apps now run things like photo sets of women in stockings having a wardrobe malfunction — you tap in and it throws you over to the mobile app to view it. I think they're using dull, low-grade material to grab attention, and I find it disgusting.... By comparison, TV news is more authoritative; phone news is coarser and more about entertainment. (Zhang Xiadan)

I don't really read the news; at most I use Weibo to see what the people I follow are saying — I follow Gu Da Baihua, for instance, to see whether anything interesting is happening abroad. (Wang Bolun, senior, environmental chemistry, Nanjing University)

Back when I interned in news I generally used NetEase News. Now, embarrassing as it is to say, I haven't installed a single news app.... As for official accounts, I can't be bothered to tap in unless it's something I'm interested in, or an event big enough that I'll take a look — otherwise I don't feel like it, there's just too much of it. (Qin Yi)

I installed IT Home and I check it pretty often, because I like reading about phones, reviews and so on — that's how I learn about them. I read a lot of phone hardware news, I'm fairly interested in it.... I've changed phones twice in four years of college; right now I'm on a Meizu MX3. (Chao Yue, senior, physics department, Peking University)

Weibo is, I think, the most effective search engine. (Anonymous)

They Barely Read the News, and When They Do, Only What Gets Pushed

For news I have a lot — 36Kr, QDaily, Huxiu, Zhihu, that sort of thing. I mainly read the news through their push notifications; I won't open one deliberately to look. (Senior, advertising department, Peking University)

I only read news through push notifications, on the Sina Weibo and Sina News apps. I used to have Sohu, NetEase and other news apps too, but I uninstalled them all — they felt much the same, and the content inside was too mixed up, a mess. But the push notifications are basically real news, so I'll open those.... Political news aside, I'm willing to read all of it. (Sun Shu)

I read little news and don't go looking for it. I come across it by accident — a classmate mentions it, or it's pushed to me and pops up on my computer or phone. When Alipay pushes a news headline, or Weibo headlines, I read a fair amount of that. (Mr. Sanfenzhi Z)

I have NetEase News on both my phone and my tablet. If something that pops up interests me I'll tap in, but it isn't that I set out to read the news — I only open a news app when I'm really bored...

With WeChat official accounts I tap them to clear the little red dots, and while I'm there, if there's news I'm interested in, I read it. I've followed The Paper and 21st Century Business Herald, but mostly I just tap them open and rarely actually read. (Susie)

Reading Books Doesn't Look Much Better

I read in fragments, basically — whole books, rarely. Fragmentary reading on WeChat official accounts, on Zhihu; maybe a bit lying in bed before sleep, and a bit after waking up. (Yu Bing, senior, School of Geography, Nanjing University)

I like physical books. I'll browse a bookstore now and then, or buy online from Dangdang or Amazon or wherever. E-books are uncomfortable to read, a bit tiring. (Chen Jing)

I don't read very much these days, though lately I've downloaded some literary novels. I've basically not bought a physical book since college started — and even if I bought one I wouldn't read it. In high school I'd buy a batch, take them home and work through them slowly; in college maybe one or two a semester. The frequency has dropped a lot, and there are e-books. (Tong Haoling)

For reading I use either PDFs or a Kindle; if I can't find a pirated copy to download, I'll buy it. The Kindle experience isn't great, not as smooth as a PDF; the other reason is to save money. (Sty, mathematics department, Tsinghua University)

Some e-books are just to pass the time — on the subway, or when there's no internet, that's when I read. I read about fifteen minutes almost every day. (Lü Bingjie, Russian department, Tianjin Normal University)

For reading I use the Chaoxing Reader. It has a lot of library material, and I log in with my university account. The service on it is pretty good. I generally don't read random books. (Anonymous freshman, School of Rail Transportation, Tongji University)

Being Able to Share Matters

For music I mainly use Xiami, because my listening habits and my favorites are in there. After Xiami dropped sharing I installed NetEase Cloud Music, but I mainly use NetEase Cloud Music for sharing — the actual listening still happens on Xiami. (Anonymous senior, English literature, Peking University)

[Editor's note: perhaps the first time it occurred to us that livestreaming is a form of sharing]

I livestream from my phone; the phone is my only equipment. Today more than 5,000 people watched, and I made it onto the trending page.... I usually stream around midday or in the evening, when more people are around and fairly free — I stream about forty hours a month.... I'm someone who likes to share, mostly stories about how I'm feeling, or things like makeup for girls. People ask me questions too. It's mostly just idle chat. (Chen Simeng, senior, economics department, Tianjin Normal University)

I Want to Know "What Other People Think" and "What Other People Are Doing"

I like using Hupu for sports news, because you can watch some live coverage, get match data analysis and so on. I think the discussion there is high quality, much higher than on portals like Sina and NetEase — portals have a lot of brain-dead fans who turn up and rant, which is really irritating. I quite like messing around on Hupu, the way you'd mess around on a school BBS. After every match I'll look at what everyone in the community is saying, and it feels warm. (Chao Yue)

I get to know strangers through Weibo. One blogger once started a "workout check-in" campaign: everyone followed his theme and wrote down every day what they ate and which exercises they did, and people commented on and liked each other's posts. Through that back-and-forth I ended up following a few friends who followed me back. The friendship isn't deep, but we cheer each other on in the comments.

There are also some star-chasing girls around me who meet their own kind in group chats and go to concerts and signings together, or get to know each other through fan clubs. One girl goes to an event basically every month; she's the hardcore type, off to anything that comes up, sometimes in another province. (Xue Yan, senior, Japanese, Shanghai International Studies University)

I often go to offline events about starting a company, and I hear about them mainly through Moments, WeChat official accounts, and an app I used a lot before called Huodongxing. (Kong Qingxun, sophomore, marketing department, Jinan University)

I use QQ Chess to meet fellow players through games — I've even met chess friends offline. (Lin Xuan, School of Liberal Arts, South China Normal University)

I have classmates who meet strangers on Douban and even arrange to meet offline. There's also Same, a social app built on shared interests — it likewise builds a community around interests. (Wang Mingchi, senior, Chinese department, Fudan University)

Do you know Parallel World? You can write things on it and read things — this time it might surface your posts to someone, next time it might not. If something you wrote does surface, that person can subscribe to you, but they still don't know who you are, where you are, what you do... Nobody chats on there, nobody knows anybody. That app exists precisely so that you don't get to know other people. (Lü Bingjie)

Sometimes I look at job-hunting apps, to see what sort of people the big companies are hiring, what sort of people they need.... I wouldn't say I follow it closely; right now I'm still working out for myself which kind of work suits me. (Tong Haoling)

There's Moments, But No "Privacy"

"MY W Days" is a diary app with a password. I note down thoughts on it sometimes, at most once a week — I've used it since late 2014.... It isn't a log of what happened; I use it to sort out my feelings, write down what I make of the people and things around me, and the odd idea that comes out of nowhere. Some thoughts I don't want to put on Moments.

This app has a password, so I feel easier. I can say whatever I like with no fear of anyone seeing it. (Cui Ying, senior, Japanese department, Shanghai International Studies University)

I check Instagram every day, scrolling about 6 times, and I have twenty or thirty friends there; each time five or six photos come up.... I installed it because sometimes I want to post photos, but there are so many people in my WeChat Moments that I need somewhere with fewer people.... You can put people in groups on WeChat, but it's still not that easy to manage. (Wang Mingchi)

I have 192 friends on WeChat, and I've hidden my Moments from 152 of them. I post to Moments a lot to keep a record of my life, so unless someone is a really close friend I generally don't let them see it. (He Jialong, senior, environmental science, Jinan University)

For the Relationship Apps, Look at What Each One Satisfies

Before my boyfriend went abroad this year, we started using an app called Between, roughly China's Xiao'ennai. The two of us can send each other photos and video, share what the weather is like where the other one is.... The point is to keep our lives from drifting apart. We've kept it up for a year now... WeChat can keep a record too, but posting to Moments feels like asking to be mocked — single people love to mock you for it.... (Muki, senior, environmental science, Shanghai Jiao Tong University)

I've used two dating apps. Tantan was pushed to me by Weibo: photos of the opposite sex appear on your home page, and if you like the look of someone you tap like, if not you swipe them away. Once you've both liked each other, you're matched. If you click, you move over to WeChat, where you can also see their Moments, and if the conversation holds up you can meet in person. That's the routine.... Sometimes you turn up someone from your own department and it's excruciating.....

The other app is Donever, which was pushed by Renren, so everyone on it is a student and it's a bit more normal. Tantan has all sorts, mostly there for hookups, so I uninstalled it. On Donever I matched with seventy or eighty people, on Tantan one or two hundred; the ones I actually talked to came to twenty or thirty in total, the ones I added on WeChat maybe a dozen, and the ones I actually met, two or three.

Apart from apps I have no other way of making friends. While I was on Tantan and Donever I'd suddenly gain some friends, and then suddenly lose some too. (Sun Shu)

I tried Momo, but I found I couldn't throw myself into it. People around me used it and talked about how great it was — they got worked up just describing it. That friend of mine hooks up a lot, and in the end I found it all very strange. I didn't like it. (Guo Hao)

I've used both Tantan and Momo. On Momo a message shows as delivered once you send it, and as read once it's been read. If it's been read and there's no reply, the other person's meaning is clear enough. Tantan doesn't have that. On Tantan the share of people who like you goes up in step with how often you open it and look — it's directly proportional.

I also use Zhenaiwang. I got into Zhenaiwang because back when I was in the Youth Volunteer Association we made a TV program specifically about how to handle relationship problems, and Zhenaiwang was built by that Peking University person at the time.... But later I couldn't afford it and stopped, because you have to pay to see other people's information, and to join their mixers. (Anonymous)

I learned about Tinder from a Vice documentary; the subject was dating in the internet age. I got bold for a while — I went in with the mindset of running an experiment. Once I was on there I found plenty of good-looking guys, so I kept swiping. Within those few days I matched with maybe more than a hundred people; twenty or thirty said hello; fewer than that exchanged a couple of messages. In the end about one actually came out to meet me. (Anonymous, cultural industry management, Tongji University)

Building Up Knowledge Fast Still Appeals to People Who Want to Learn and Like Shortcuts

I go on Zhihu sometimes, mainly when I have a question — I'll go straight there and search for it, to see how everyone answers.

Before, when I wasn't that keen on Luoji Siwei, I didn't buy its membership. Now, if it opens the next batch, I very likely will. The membership is honestly useless — it doesn't even get you a discount on books — but it's a fan-economy thing, a symbol that says you approve of it. (Entrepreneur, math department, Peking University)

Lately I like scrolling Zhihu. I follow the big names in the fields I'm interested in, the Zhihu celebrities, and I scroll before bed. Since I'm about to move to Shenzhen, I've been following what's good to eat and do in Shenzhen, renting there, the industry I work in, tax experts, what people make of films, and so on. (Susie)

I install other apps that help with my guitar playing, like Aiwan Jita (I Love Playing Guitar) and a ukulele tuner. One is for sheet music, the other for tuning. My guitar is at home, so I practice when I go home. (Anonymous, English department, Peking University)

I use NetEase Open Courses, because I major in English literature and don't come across much else. My field feels narrow, and literature is a fairly emotional subject, so I also want some more rational material, which I'll need for my career plans as well. I used to watch economics courses on NetEase Open Courses, things like Sixty Days to Understand Economics, usually once or twice a month. (Anonymous, English department, Peking University)

And of Course You Can Spend Money to Improve Yourself

I've spent money on an education app, an English one, the subscription kind — mostly English talk shows, fairly relaxed, something to listen to when there's nothing else on. (Yu Bing)

I installed the Dongao Accounting Online app for CPA (Certified Public Accountant) courses. The CPA exam has six subjects; this time I signed up for accounting, tax law and economic law, three subjects at 250 yuan each, 1,000 yuan in all. I started studying in late March or early April, and I sit the exam in October. (Susie)

Recently I bought some material on writing documents on the Dedao app — it's a platform where you pay for content, buying a bit of shared knowledge. That was the first time I paid for that kind of material, 199 yuan. (Kong Qingxun)

You know Luoji Siwei? I buy some knowledge-productivity things. On shared knowledge I spend maybe 200 yuan a month. Actually the biggest share is probably Kindle, where I buy books directly. (Guo Hao)

What I plan to work on from here is semantic analysis and cross-language machine translation. Right now I'm taking Stanford's Coursera courses on natural language processing, image recognition and semantic analysis — each one costs a few tens of dollars. (Xu Chengdong, senior, School of Journalism and Communication, Shanghai International Studies University)

Apps With a Built-In Function (Productivity) Have a Bit More of an Edge

For video I use Xunlei, though I hardly use it — it's just a video app I have installed for when I need it, not something I watch on all the time.

For music I use Kugou, because the Kugou on my computer syncs conveniently. (Junior, electronics department, Peking University)

The app I spend the most time in is the UC Browser. I browse the web in UC. I started using it because UC saved data, and later, once all my bookmarks were in UC, I couldn't switch away. (Kong Qingxun)

Finding What They Like Is Only the First Step

I like travel apps, things like Discover Weekend and Bread Trip. Bread Trip has not just recommendations for things to do but also material on skills. I like traveling, so I pay more attention to this sort of thing. (Advertising department, Peking University)

I have about twenty apps on my phone, mostly the practical kind, plus a few more entertaining ones, like Chengmi — you can search for places to go and good things to see, and it's updated often. (Chen Jing)

I have some travel apps I downloaded before a trip to Thailand, from the "Next Stop" series. They work offline, which is convenient, and they have recommendations and maps — I downloaded the Phuket, Bangkok and Chiang Mai ones. I'd used the series before, when I went to northern Europe, and found it useful, so now whenever I go somewhere unfamiliar abroad I download one. I love Thailand so much that I still haven't deleted any of these. (Yao Weijia)

I like looking at paintings. Recently I found an app that introduces famous paintings in great detail, with images of the works at a resolution that is genuinely moving. It's called The Path of Beauty, and it covers the European classics by theme; the images are worth looking at and there's a lot of detail to sit with. My favorites are the Impressionists — Gauguin, Van Gogh, Monet. (Gao Wa)

I follow information about painting, sculpture and exhibitions. On Douban there's an app called Art News and one called Art Toutiao, and there's a site I follow called The Creators Project, mainly for inspiration and ideas. These are the apps I spend the most time in. (Anonymous sculpture major, Tianjin Academy of Fine Arts)

Lately I've been on Kaiyan a lot, mainly for creative short films under five minutes. I bookmark the good ones, and whenever I have time free I watch 10 or 20 in one go and then clear the list.... When I'm busy, watching video throws off my rhythm, so I generally download videos to my phone for a long-distance bus, a train or a high-speed train and finish them in one sitting. (Kong Qingxun)

I use the fitness app Zouxingren (Star Walker) three or four times a week, for running, walking and skipping. On it you can adopt a "star" pet, and the pet can level up; while you're exercising you see the pet walking too, which makes you happy — it has that pet-raising feel. You can choose your pet and swap it out. I picked Toast and Gingerbread Man, because I like food, so I picked food as my pets. (Zhang Xiadan)

Games! Everyone Plays! They'll Pay! But in the End It Comes Down to the Content

What I mainly follow is League of Legends, and mostly through the Zhangmeng app. Games are relaxing, and there's a certain thrill to fighting other people... (Pan Chen, senior, international trade, Tianjin Normal University)

Each time I play I spend around 1,000 yuan on the Texas Hold'em app, mainly to win money. Not for fun and not to unwind — playing this is actually stressful. Before each session I make sure I'm physically well and clear-headed, the same as for mahjong. (Math department, Peking University)

I spend money on mobile games — I play Dou Dizhu (Fight the Landlord). It's swept our department lately; you can pick it up and play, and at night everyone can team up. Otherwise I don't have much time for games: a round of League of Legends takes half an hour, and I can't take that. (Fifth-year, sculpture, Tianjin Academy of Fine Arts)

I like mobile games — at any given stage I'll have one or two going. When I have time free I'll play an hour or two; if I'm home all day, longer. There's a small group of us who play together, and there are themed events every month; during an event you have to play pretty hard to draw gold coins and get to the next stage. When we meet up each month we compare complaints about whether that month's event was fun and talk about how to use new skills — mostly tips on playing. (Cui Ying)

I spend very little on apps. A while back I bought a game for 6 yuan, or paid for a VPN, that sort of thing. I don't usually play games, but a roommate of mine plays NetEase games, and they put out a Monopoly-style mobile game. I liked Monopoly as a child and thought it was pretty good. She told me buying a VPN would make the experience better, so I went and bought one. (Chen Jing)

I generally use Douyu to watch game streams, Hearthstone. Streams are probably what takes the most time. On a weekend, once I'm up, I'll have a stream running while I read papers or do something else, and once it's on it's four or five hours — four or five in the morning and four or five in the evening.... Hearthstone is probably where most of my money goes as well. Boys don't buy much else; if you have a hobby, you spend a bit on it. (Xu Chengdong)

Anyone Who Thinks They Understand Young People, Take Note: Bullet Comments Don't Solve Everything

Lately, since I sorted out getting over the firewall, I watch a bit more on YouTube. Before that, for shows, I'd go wherever the video happened to be; Bilibili has a lot of films so I'd go there, but I don't much like bullet comments, so I switch them off to watch a film. (Wang Mingchi)

I quite like watching video on Bilibili, because it has a lot of material, it's fairly sharp, it's free and there are no ads. I'm not the sort who needs bullet comments as a shield — when there are too many I'll still turn them off — but most of the time I leave them on, because it feels less lonely, and you pick up a lot of background that way, which is fun. (Chao Yue)

Livestreaming Isn't That Hot — At Least Few Say They Use It. It Comes Down to How Much "Bored" Time There Is

I generally watch video on my computer, and when I'm bored I watch streaming platforms like Douyu and Panda TV. Watching along with everyone is fun. The main appeal is the choice — there are lots of categories, sports, games, dramas, all of it. I started in my senior year, mostly entertainment streams, about half an hour at a time; watching Bear Grylls's Man vs. Wild on Douyu, for instance. (Mr. Sanfenzhi Z)

Why They Uninstall

I have about 20 apps on my phone. If an app feels useless I delete it straight away, so now they're basically all practical. Back when I was trying to lose weight I had several — some counted my steps and showed how many calories I'd burned that day, others pushed diet recipes or let me see how other people losing weight were doing.... They didn't feel much use to me... (Sun Shu)

I have fifteen apps. Install too many and, first, you don't really use them; second, the phone slows down; third, there are all sorts of push notifications, a mess. I open about eight a day, basically all practical ones — email, my telecom broadband client and so on.... I stopped using Weibo because it felt like a bottomless pit, endless scrolling, a huge time sink, so I uninstalled it deliberately. (Mr. Sanfenzhi Z)

I've used the fitness apps Codoon and Boohee, and that Nike one too, but after I changed phones I didn't reinstall it. In my first two years I often installed apps out of curiosity; now I care more about whether an app is useful. (Xue Yan)

I installed Wumi once, which is an app for airing complaints, and later uninstalled it, because Moments already gives you plenty to read.... Wumi is basically a hookup tool, and it has self-destructing messages too. I installed it purely for the gossip, things like how messy the Jiao Tong University student union is. I think this kind of app is essentially challenging moral authority, because it deals in what morality says you shouldn't talk about — sex, immoral things. (Ding Yijun, senior, communications department, Shanghai Jiao Tong University)

Once you're on Weibo you can't help scrolling the trending posts. Reading them is fun, but tap into the comments and you feel unhappy: people are so unrestrained, trying to use what they say online to shape how others think, even to steer where opinion goes. I don't like that. A lot of the time a piece of news comes out, plenty of people pay attention, and afterwards it turns out to be false or wrongly reported, and it feels like being played. So I stopped using Weibo last year. (Anonymous, Tongji University)

We Also Ran a Survey on College Students and Phone Apps. Here Are the Results:

Note: this survey was run by QDaily on the Wenjuanxing platform. It went live on June 6, 2016, and as of the evening of July 8, 2,108 people had taken part.

Cover image: huffpost

Graphics: Lin Yuyao

Image sources: appadvice, dailydawdle, fashiongonerogue, tvbs, refinedguy, ytimg, cdn, bandicam

Note: Luo Zhen also contributed to this article.