Study Links Facebook with Low GPA

It was probably just a matter of time until someone, somewhere, found a statistical correlation between the highly popular social networking tool, Facebook, and lower grades. A pair of Ohio researchers found just such a link, based on a survey. A pair of Ohio researchers presented their research April 16 in San Diego at the annual meeting of the American Education Research Association. They surveyed 219 students at Ohio State University, including 102 undergraduate students and 117 graduate students.  Of the participants, 148 said they had a Facebook account.

The findings: 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 Web site. However, more than three-quarters of Facebook users claimed that their use of the 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.

The report underscores the age-old distinction between correlation and causation:

“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.”

Here's a link for more information.

Comments

[John Soares]

I'm not surprised to see the correlation, although we can't yet be sure there is causation. It could be that Facebook users are less motivated to do well in school.

I suspect, though, that this is an example of students spending too much time fooling around on the Internet and not enough time studying.