Poll: beer no longer rules campuses

That's right, the iPod has taken over.

Beer traditionally has had the biggest buzz with college students: Seventy-five percent consider drinking beer "in" on their campuses, according to Student Monitor's Lifestyle & Media Study.

Only once in the past decade of the biannual survey, in 1997, was beer bumped from the top spot — by the Internet, says Student Monitor's Eric Weil. The Ridgewood, N.J., research firm surveyed a representative group of 600 students.

Among the findings:

• iPods were the No. 1 "in" thing on campuses; 73% of students mentioned it. iPods were even more popular with Hispanic students (77%) and women (76%).

• Drinking beer tied with the college networking site Facebook.com (71%).

• Nos. 4 to 10 were drinking other alcohol (67%), text messaging (66%), downloading music (66%), going to clubs (65%), instant messaging (63%), working out (62%) and coffee (60%).

I must be the most uncool person ever. I don't have an iPod, I don't drink, I have a meager Facebook account that I rarely use, I don't have a text messaging plan, I don't download music often, I don't go to clubs, I don't instant message often, I never work out, and I only drink coffee occasionally.

But then, I'm not in college.