2024 Back to School Topics and Trends

Wondering how school break flew by? You're not alone. While many of us in the Northern Hemisphere were savoring the last days of summer, back-to-school season came creeping in. We took a look at the online, social media, and news conversation from July 1 through August 28 to see what was top-of-mind for parents, teachers, students, and more as the 2024-2025 school year begins.

Check out our back-to-school data blogs from 2022 and 2023 to see how trends have changed.

Back-to-school prep and anticipation

Back-to-school conversations have been rising gradually since early July. Mentions spiked four times higher than average on August 26, the first day of school in many regions of the United States and Canada. Among the content that scored the highest engagement that day were several Pinterest recipes for school snacks, quick breakfasts, and easy weeknight meals.

This post on Pinterest generated about 248,000 engagement actions.

Learn more about how consumers use Pinterest to find budget-friendly meal ideas and recipes for plant-based dupes of their favorite foods.

The overall sentiment of this year's back-to-school conversations have been more positive than negative thanks to posts expressing anticipation and joy for returning to classes. Still, not all students were excited about the new school year. The content that generated the most engagement was a post on X about a child who thought they were finished with school.

This post on X generated about 310,000 engagement actions, including about 17,000 reposts and 1,700 replies, in just over a week.

#Clearthelist and #bettertogether

For the second year in a row, #clearthelist is the second most popular hashtag in the conversation. Educators and their supporters use the hashtag to promote back-to-school supplies and resources for their classrooms.

In a similar vein, #bettertogether has newly become a top back-to-school hashtag. Both it and #clearthelist are commonly used to indicate a sense of collaboration and community in supporting teachers and their classrooms.

This post on X generated about 1,5700 engagement actions and got about 66,500 views.

Back to school by source

On X, slightly more than half of those talking about back-to-school season self-identify as teachers. That is one reason why authors in the X conversation tend to be adults.

And while Amazon is the most-mentioned online store on X, a different website leads the way in back-to-school conversations on Pinterest.

On the visual pinboard site, Etsy racked up more than 3,600 mentions, more than three times the volume of Amazon mentions. Compare that to the overall conversation, shown below, where Amazon was the clear e-commerce winner.

Explore our data deep-dive into how consumers discover and research new items and brands.

The go-to back-to-school emoji

The stack of books emoji is having a moment in the sun with about 51,400 mentions in back-to-school conversations. Netizens often use it in posts about back-to-school tips, checklists, craft ideas, and giveaways. Meanwhile, the broken heart emoji is the icon of choice for posts about back-to-school anxieties, as well as related health and financial struggles.

Confused about emoji meanings? Take a look at our helpful guide.

Overall, digital conversations indicate a general sense of hope and excitement going into the school year. Interested in seeing how these topics evolve as the months go on? Learn how with a demo of the Meltwater Suite.

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