A study published by The Huffington Post states that teenagers and young adults prefer checking email on mobile phones over checking it on the Internet, a trend that some St. Thomas students said they agreed with.

The study claims that 34 percent of 18- to 24-year-olds rely more on mobile devices to check their email.

Information Resources and Technology (IRT) confirms that more students and faculty are syncing St. Thomas accounts to their smartphones via an application called Exchange Active Sync (EAS).

“We definitely see a rise in that for sure, but personally I just believe that’s because there’s more phones that are capable of doing so,” Administrative Technology Consultant Jess Walczak said.

EAS became available three years ago, and IRT saw the most students inquire about the installation in 2007 after the introduction of the iPhone.

In December 2011, IRT concluded that 15 percent of freshmen, 20 percent of sophomores, 26 percent of juniors and 25 percent of seniors are using EAS technology.

“I don’t think that means they’re moving away from viewing on a website, especially when there’s content their phones can’t access,” Walczak said.

Senior Christian Schuster said he uses his iPhone to check both his St. Thomas and Gmail accounts.

“If it’s a longer email, I’ll save it for later,” Schuster said.

He said he checks his email regularly and claims it doesn’t bother him to receive an email on the go.

Sophomore Maura Hinken said she has yet to connect her email accounts to her iPhone, but she plans to do so soon.

“I use my computer more,” Hinken said. “I haven’t had time to set up my email, but once I do, I’m sure I’ll use it more.”

Hinken recently purchased her phone but said she already worries that email will supplement existing distractions such as Facebook and Twitter.

Hinken also said she anticipates that she might not read emails as thoroughly once her phone is synced to her St. Thomas account.

“I would probably just glance at it and see if it’s super important,” she said. “ If it’s not, I’d wait until I got to my laptop to really read it.”

Freshman Marta Munoz said she uses her Blackberry not only for Facebook, Twitter and weather updates, but also to stay linked to loved ones across the globe.

Munoz is an international student, and she said email access on her phone allows her to stay in contact with friends and family.

“I’m from Spain, so I connect with my family,” Munoz said. “They cannot call me so they send me email instead, and I can talk to them all the time.”

Munoz mentioned that messages instantly sent to her phone from family have enabled her to keep in much closer contact than her laptop.

Though unable to say whether mobile-based or web-based email will become predominant in the future, IRT Director Jenn Haas said she has noticed more departments interested in the possibility of sending text messages to students rather than emails.

“IRT has received requests from some departments to look into products that can text groups of people, define a population and push texts out to them,” Haas said.

Haas said the department is looking into the possibility.

Anastasia Straley can be reached at stra0669@stthomas.edu.