The Facebook Grade Correlation
April 16th, 2009Author: Erica Chandler
A few days ago, a student and researcher at The Ohio State University announced a pilot study indicating that there is a link to Facebook users in college and lower GPAs.
This topic has sparked some interesting conversation, not only about Facebook, but our habit of multitasking in general.
Frankly, I don’t buy it and here’s why:
- The study surveyed 219 students – this is hardly enough to call an accurate and representative sample especially when there are more than 200 million active users on Facebook. While I realize that this may just be a start to their research or a pilot, they should really take a look at a larger sample to come to a conclusion rather than the .0001095 percent that was included in the study.
- No one I knew in college spent ALL day on Facebook. The study states that those using Facebook are studying an average of 1-5 hours a week versus those non-users studying 11-15 hours a week. Now, is it just me or would those students be studying the same amount of time even without a Facebook account? There are a number of other activities including sports, socializing, video games, etc. that could be impacting a student’s “study time” besides their Facebook account.
- Another element ignored by this study is timing. How long do you have to use Facebook until your GPA becomes “affected?” Are you safe if you’ve only been using it for a month and then cease all use or will you as well be doomed into the categorization having a poor GPA due to your Facebook account? Now that would be an interesting study.
- I don’t buy that Facebook is the only social network to “harm a student’s GPA.” Have we looked at twitter? Friendfeed? Or LinkedIn? Are those affecting the college student’s ability to have a high GPA?
The foundation of this study and the argument it makes overall is weak. People use social networks in their daily lives, not just in college and this trend continues to grow. This makes the idea of social networking as a whole more relevant than ever before – regardless of your age. Of course, it takes time to build your social network online – just as it does to hold an in-person meeting with those in your “offline” network.
Overall, I think it comes down to the fact that students are yes, spending time on Facebook, but I don’t think you can accurately make the argument that it is contributing to poor grades. If a student has the will to succeed, they will and Facebook isn’t going to stop them.
Here are a few other great posts that offer thoughts on the recent Ohio State University findings:
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Tags: college students, Facebook, GPA, Ohio State University, Social Networking
