Skip to main content

Millennials would rather raise their credit score than Instagram follower count

Think what you want about millennials, but a new survey suggests most of them place higher importance on their credit score than their social media follower count. According to a recent survey by Experian, 59% of millennials believe the most important rating to increase is credit scores, not social media approval.

Instagram follower counts came in second as the most important “score” to increase, followed by Twitter followers, YouTube subscribers, Facebook friends, Uber/Lyft/Via ratings, Snapchat friends, and video game kill scores. While 19% of the respondents said social media was an obsession, 49% said credit score was the rating that impacts their life most.

Recommended Videos

More than half (53%) said proactively increasing credit scores is important, while even more (59%) worry about their scores. About half the respondents are disappointed if their scores go down.

That worry is paying off — Experian says that, on average, millennials have seen their credit scores jump by 21 points over the last five years, the largest increase of any generation during that time period.

The survey, which included 2,000 consumers between ages 23 and 38, offers insight into the thoughts of the generation growing up with both social media and the Great Recession and the student loan crisis — and comes as the biggest social media networks are considering eliminating the like counts. Facebook and Instagram are currently testing eliminating the like count on individual posts, allowing only the original user to see the number of likes. 

That may prevent some comparison and a sinking self-esteem, but the test doesn’t include hiding the user’s total follower count. According to the Experian survey, 82% have checked their credit score in the last three months — the same number of respondents that checked their Facebook follower count in the same time frame.

“Proud scorekeeping millennials can often have low credit scores due to short credit histories, but there are steps they can take to better manage their scores,” Rod Griffin, director of public education for Experian, said. “Ultimately, a good credit score has a greater lifelong impact than social media likes and followers, and putting the emphasis on monitoring this score will set millennials up for a successful financial future.”

For those millennials worried about that credit score, Experian recommends those without a credit history open a line of credit, along with paying bills on time and using Experian Boost to add utility payments to your credit score.

Hillary K. Grigonis
Hillary never planned on becoming a photographer—and then she was handed a camera at her first writing job and she's been…
Bluesky finally adds a feature many had been waiting for
A blue sky with clouds.

Bluesky has been making a lot of progress in recent months by simplifying the process to sign up while at the same time rolling out a steady stream of new features.

As part of those continuing efforts, the social media app has just announced that users can now send direct messages (DMs).

Read more
Reddit just achieved something for the first time in its 20-year history
The Reddit logo.

Reddit’s on a roll. The social media platform has just turned a profit for the first time in its 20-year history, and now boasts a record 97.2 million daily active users, marking a year-over-year increase of 47%. A few times during the quarter, the figure topped 100 million, which Reddit CEO and co-founder Steve Huffman said in a letter to shareholders had been a “long-standing milestone” for the site.

The company, which went public in March, announced the news in its third-quarter earnings results on Tuesday.

Read more
Worried about the TikTok ban? This is how it might look on your phone
TikTok splash screen on an Android phone.

The US Supreme Court has decided to uphold a law that would see TikTok banned in the country on January 19. Now, the platform has issued an official statement, confirming that it will indeed shut down unless it gets some emergency relief from the outgoing president.

“Unless the Biden Administration immediately provides a definitive statement to satisfy the most critical service providers assuring non-enforcement, unfortunately TikTok will be forced to go dark on January 19,” said the company soon after the court’s verdict.
So, what does going dark mean?
So, far, there is no official statement on what exactly TikTok means by “going dark.” There is a lot of speculation out there on how exactly the app or website will look once TikTok shutters in the US.

Read more