Study finds link between
Facebook use, lower grades in college
Tuesday, April 14,
2009
College students who use Facebook spend less time studying and have
lower grade point averages than students who have not signed up for
the social networking website, according to a pilot study at one
university.
However, more than three-quarters of Facebook users claimed that
their use of the social networking site didn't interfere with their
studies.
"We can't say that use of Facebook leads to lower grades and less
studying – but we did find a relationship there," said Aryn
Karpinski, co-author of the study and a doctoral student in
education at Ohio State University.
"There's a disconnect between students' claim that Facebook use
doesn't impact their studies, and our finding showing they had
lower grades and spent less time studying."
While this was a relatively small, exploratory study, it is one of
the first to find a relationship between college students' use of
Facebook and their academic achievement.
Typically, Facebook users in the study had GPAs between 3.0 and
3.5, while non-users had GPAs between 3.5 and 4.0.
In addition, users said they averaged one to five hours a week
studying, while non-users studied 11 to 15 hours per week.
Karpinski conducted the study with Adam Duberstein of Ohio
Dominican University. They presented their research April 16 in San
Diego at the annual meeting of the American Education Research
Association.
The researchers surveyed 219 students at Ohio State, including 102
undergraduate students and 117 graduate students. Of the
participants, 148 said they had a Facebook account.
The study found that 85 percent of undergraduates were Facebook
users, while only 52 percent of graduate students had
accounts.
Students who spent more time working at paid jobs were less likely
to use Facebook, while students who were more involved in
extracurricular activities at school were more likely to use
Facebook.
Science, technology, engineering, math (STEM) and business majors
were more likely to use Facebook than were students majoring in the
humanities and social sciences.
"Other research had indicated that STEM majors spend more time on
the Internet than do other students, so that may be one reason why
they are more likely to use Facebook," Karpinski said.
There were no differences in Facebook use between different members
of racial and ethnic groups that were part of the study, or between
men and women.
Younger and full-time students were more likely to be Facebook
users.
Findings showed that 79 percent of Facebook users claimed it did
not have an impact on their academic performance. In open-ended
questions on the survey, users claimed they didn't use Facebook
frequently enough to notice an impact, and emphasized that
academics were a priority for them.
Karpinski emphasized that the results don't necessarily mean that
Facebook use leads to lower grades.
"There may be other factors involved, such as personality traits,
that link Facebook use and lower grades," she said.
"It may be that if it wasn't for Facebook, some students would
still find other ways to avoid studying, and would still get lower
grades. But perhaps the lower GPAs could actually be because
students are spending too much time socializing online."
Karpinski said it was significant that the link between lower
grades and Facebook use was found even in graduate students. She
said that graduate students generally have GPAs above 3.5, so the
fact that even they had lower grades when they used Facebook -- and
spent less time studying – was an amazing finding.
The popularity of Facebook is evident in college lecture halls,
Karpinski said. Faculty members who allow students to use laptops
in class have told her they often see students on the Facebook site
during class.
"It's not going away anytime soon, and we need to learn more about
how Facebook use is affecting students," she said.
As for herself, Karpinski said she doesn't have a Facebook account,
although her co-author does.
"For me, I think Facebook is a huge distraction," she said.
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Ohio State University
Thanks to Ohio State University
for this article.