New Poll: Students Beliefs About Free Speech, Social Media & Well Being

A new survey conducted by the Challey Institute at North Dakota State University is tracking how some students view free speech. The majority opinion? Free speech is good, unless it offends somebody.

The 2025 American College Student Freedom, Progress, and Flourishing Survey, conducted annually since 2021 and released in September, polled over 2,000 students from 472 colleges and universities across the United States. The survey, divided into five sections, merits unpacking.

The results reveal that 74% of students believe free speech is more important than ensuring comfort. Yet, this support wanes when speech is deemed offensive, with 71% of students willing to report a professor and 57% willing to report a fellow student for making what they deem as "offensive" comments.

Digging into what constitutes "offensive," researchers explored whether students were reacting to extreme language, such as racial slurs, or simply opinions they disagreed with. The results were eye-catching: "most students who are in favor of reporting professors are in favor of reporting them for stating opinions and/or facts that they disagree with." 

The survey presented 10 potentially offensive statements, and 62% of students supported reporting professors to university authorities for expressing one or more of these statements. Notably, 22% were in favor of reporting a professor for stating, "Biological sex is a scientific fact. There are two sexes, male and female."

The survey also examined students' comfort levels in expressing their own views. While 71% reported feeling at least somewhat comfortable sharing opinions in the classroom, discomfort often stemmed from fears that their viewpoints would be rejected (51%) or damage their reputations (25%). The issue extends beyond personal expression, though, to institutional decisions about free speech. 

When asked about disinviting guest speakers addressing controversial topics, 35% of liberal students supported such actions, compared to 28% of independents and 16% of conservatives. Conversely, 29% of independent students and 26% of conservative students were more likely than liberal students (19%) to favor dropping discussion topics that make students uncomfortable.

"As this section of our survey shows," the poll noted, "a significant number of students are intolerant of points of view that they disagree with." Professor John Bitzan, the survey's author, expressed deep concern about these trends, particularly in light of recent events.

Referencing the assassination of Christian and conservative commentator Charlie Kirk, Bitzan told The College Fix, "I'm deeply troubled by the fact that a husband and father has lost his life simply because someone disagreed with his views." He warned that "students report a growing intolerance toward speech they find disagreeable, and many believe institutions should protect individuals from certain viewpoints rather than encourage engagement with them."

Widening the lens beyond free speech, the survey also gave insight into how students view the structure of government as well as "Human Progress, Attitudes About the Future, and National Pride." Only 27% of students held a favorable view of capitalism, while views on socialism varied depending on the definition in use. When asked if they believed the world has improved in the last 50 years "in terms of extreme poverty, life expectancy, hunger, and literacy," only 43% said yes -- 46% said they believed it's gotten worse.

When it comes to looking ahead, a mere 23% of students expressed optimism for the future -- in both the U.S. and the world as a whole. Barely half -- 51% -- were hopeful for their own futures, and only 49% believe they can make a difference in the world.

The final section of the survey addressed students' use of social media. In a technologically dominant time, the majority of the students not only use social media but spend several hours a day on the apps. Seventy-nine percent of students reported one to five hours of daily social media use, while 15% admitted to using it for up to five to 10 hours per day, and at least 2% reporting more than 10 hours of use per day. It turns out, at least 46% believe "social media has had a somewhat negative or very negative impact on their mental health and well-being, compared to 23 percent reporting a positive impact."

In response to these statistics showing students' attitudes on these issues, David Closson, director of Family Research Council's Center for Biblical Worldview, told The Washington Stand, "We've arrived at this point, because students have been catechized by a culture that prizes personal feelings above objective truth." Ultimately, "When truth becomes relative and identity becomes ultimate, disagreement feels like violence and censorship begins to feel like virtue."

Closson explained that "this is the predictable fruit of abandoning a biblical understanding of truth, reason, and the human person." Free speech, for example, "can only flourish in a culture that believes in objective moral truth, and tragically, that conviction is eroding on many college campuses." He argued that "Christians should be the most confident people in the world when it comes to truth, because we know that all truth is God's truth (John 14:6; Col. 1:17)." It's the biblical worldview, Closson emphasized, that provides the understanding "that truth exists outside of us; it is revealed by God, not invented by man" -- a conviction that "frees us to engage others with both courage and humility."

Silencing those we disagree with is not what needs to take place, Closson stated. Rather, when it comes to opposing voices, Christians "can listen, reason, and speak the truth in love, knowing that God's word will stand when every cultural fad fades away." After all, he continued, "The goal isn't to win an argument but to bear witness to the truth in a confused age."

Closson addressed the students' lack of optimism for the future, stating, "The hopelessness reflected in this survey is what happens when a generation is taught that life has no design, purpose, or moral order." Yet, he added, "Christians know that history is not random. History is ruled by a sovereign God who is redeeming all things through Christ. That truth gives us both hope and mission."

He encouraged believers to adopt a biblical understanding of purpose: "We don't measure our future by political trends or social decline but by the promises of Scripture. Because God is at work, our labor in the Lord is never in vain (1 Cor. 15:58). The church's task is to model that hope so that a despairing generation might see the light of Christ in us."

Originally published at The Washington Stand