Contrary to previous research, Facebook usage is not tied to low grades, a new study (pdf) says. In fact, many students who use Facebook in a particular way actually get higher grades.
This says to me that Facebook has become so ubiquitous in the lives of students that it is no longer a distraction and simply an important source of daily information.
“Facebook use in and of itself is not detrimental to academic outcome,” says study author Reynol Junco, a professor at the Lock Haven University of Pennsylvania. “It depends how it’s used.”
The Study
The new study was published in Computers in Human Behavior last week. The researchers analyzed data culled from 1,839 college students. The researchers measured Facebook usage, high-school GPAs and the grades as reported by the school. This is instead of relying on the grades submitted by the students themselves.
The key takeaway from the study is this: average students spend about 106 minutes on Facebook every day. As the rate of Facebook usage went up, though, the GPA score dropped. Not by much, though. For every extra 93 minutes spent on Facebook, the GPA of a student dropped just .12 grade points. That’s not an increase but it’s certainly not anything Earth shattering.
“You have to spend an inordinate amount of time on Facebook for it to be related to GPA in a way that is shocking.” Junco says.
Taking A Closer Look
This correlation falls in line with expectations on a general scale. But what about when we drill down a bit? It turns out a certain usage of Facebook hurts GPAs but another type helps GPAs.
What is that particular way, you ask?
Using Facebook to just post status updates and chat with friends has been shown to lower GPA, according to this study. Meanwhile, using Facebook like an information-gathering tool can boost GPA.
This means using Facebook to see what interesting things your friends are doing while also sharing links and information is generally helpful.
In other words, social Facebook activities were correlated with lower grades and information-related activities were correlated with higher grades.
The Takeaway
So what should students do? Completely stop updating their status and chatting with friends? Not gonna happen. However, they should start trying to use social media, Facebook in particular, in a more educational manner. Students should use Facebook as a discovery engine like many of us do on Twitter. This way the mind is being expanded and new ideas are constantly pouring in. Never a bad thing.
Junco thinks there are ways Facebook can be used effectively in an educational context — which is why he sets up Facebook groups for each of his classes to continue discussion online.
“What I like best about it is that we’re using a technology that students already use.” Junco says.
Important Notes
It’s important to note that this is not the first, nor the last, study to analyze the relationship between Facebook and grades. There are so many variables that no study is going to be completely accurate or 100% reliable. So take this study for what it’s worth and use it to start the discussion in the classroom, in the teacher’s lounge or simply with your friends.
The Abstract
Because of the social media platform’s widespread adoption by college students, there is a great deal of interest in how Facebook use is related to academic performance. A small number of prior studies have examined the relationship between Facebook use and college grade point average (GPA); however, these studies have been limited by their measures, sampling designs and failure to include prior academic ability as a control variable. For instance, previous studies used non-continuous measures of time spent on Facebook and self-reported GPA. This paper fills a gap in the literature by using a large sample (N = 1839) of college students to examine the relationship among multiple measures of frequency of Facebook use, participation in Facebook activities, and time spent preparing for class and actual overall GPA. Hierarchical (blocked) linear regression analyses revealed that time spent on Facebook was strongly and significantly negatively related to overall GPA, while only weakly related to time spent preparing for class. Furthermore, using Facebook for collecting and sharing information was positively predictive of the outcome variables while using Facebook for socializing was negatively predictive. Copyright 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Unfortunately the lure of just updating your status and commenting on other people's statuses and photos is too much for a lot of us.