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Students Who Use Facebook Get Lower Grades, Study Shows
Filed under: In The News, Research Reveals: Teens
Updating your status while studying could lower your GPA. Credit: meow meow meow meow, Flickr
Newsflash: Facebook may be making us dumber.
London's Daily Mail reports that a team of psychologists studied 219 university students between the ages of 19 and 54, and found that those who use Facebook while they study -- or even have it running in the background -- get grades that are 20 percent lower than those who do not.
"The problem is that most people have Facebook or other social networking sites, their e-mails and maybe instant messaging constantly running in the background while they are carrying out other tasks," Paul Kirschner, study author and professor at the Center for Learning Sciences and Technologies at the Open University of The Netherlands, tells the newspaper.
The students who used Facebook had grade point averages of 3.06, which doesn't seem too bad when the scale goes from 0.0 to 4.0. However, those who turned off the social media network when it came time to hit the books had a typical GPA of 3.82. In addition, non-users also said they studied more often -- spending an average of 88 percent more time working outside of class.
Some students are in denial about the findings. Three-quarters of those surveyed said they don't believe Facebook had any effect on their performance.
Kirschner is quick to point out that he isn't trying to demonize any one social media network, but that the study does suggest that multi-tasking online isn't an effective study strategy.
"Our study, and other previous work, suggests that while people may think constant task-switching allows them to get more done in less time, the reality is it extends the amount of time needed to carry out tasks and leads to more mistakes," he tells the Daily Mail.
Kirschner also tells the newspaper he doesn't think this trend is limited to college students. He says he would expect similar results among younger pupils, as well.
Related: Could Facebook Keep Your Kid Out of College?
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ReaderComments (Page 1 of 2)
9-08-2010 @ 8:40PM
Anna said...It all depends on the student. While in college I would use facebook, but I still got the highest grades in my classes.
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9-08-2010 @ 9:44PM
Terry said...Boy......THIS is going to be an unpopular article. Doesn't make it any less true, though.....
Reply
9-09-2010 @ 12:16AM
Lauren said...I'm pretty sure that a few months ago parentdish posted an article of a study that states using facebook did not affect kids grades. That study only used 219 students which does not cover a very large sample of the college population. It's the kid or adult that chooses to let themseves get distracted by going online or doing other things while attempting to study or do homework.
Reply
9-08-2010 @ 10:08PM
jycfrnkl said...I'm a school counselor and from what I've seen the kids who gravitate to face book( and get overly involved) are kind of "low average" to begin with. They don't have a whole lot going on for them upstairs so they focus on partying, gossip, and facebook to "look cool." It's like a study that shows that people who watch the Simpsons are dumb. No....dumb people watch the Simpsons.
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9-12-2010 @ 10:14AM
Alicia said...For a school counselor, you're kind of an a$$. But that's what I've come to expect from most high school counselors. They're young or incompetent, and the young ones who do well quickly end up working in colleges. Most students I know use facebook. In fact, all my friends and I are A students in college,were honors students in high school and have never been big into partying. However, it was a great way of organizing weekly meetings for our literary club (that ranged across all grades and ran all summer) and now that we're scattered throughout the northeast at college, it's a great way to keep in touch. I suspect stupid applications, poor discipline and a lack of teachers able to make their subject interesting and worthwhile are the real problem.
9-09-2010 @ 6:24AM
Paula said...A counselor, huh? Then you should know better than to say such unsubstantiated things. Just because a student uses Facebook doesn't mean that they "don't have a lot going on upstairs" or that they don't have a social life. Grades may fall because of the chance that they are on Facebook as opposed to studying or doing homework. Stupid people watch The Simpsons? Where are you getting your data from?
9-08-2010 @ 11:14PM
Heather said...I hardly find that 219 students surveyed is really a a good amount for a group. I have a 4.0 GPA and have been on the Dean's List for 3 years running; while having Facebook open many times whilst doing homework, studying for tests, class, etc. I find this to be very blanketed statistics in consideration.
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9-08-2010 @ 10:19PM
Amy said...I'm 25. I was an online college student. I used to do tons of other things on my computer in between studying. I graduated with a 4.0 GPA on May 8, 2010. I'm not saying I'm typical, but social networking didn't mess up my grades.
Of course, I'm old enough that I wasn't a young child when people started getting the Internet in their homes. I think it has more to do with the fact that kids under 20 have grown up in a world that is completely inundated with info, and they haven't learned to concentrate and study.
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9-08-2010 @ 10:38PM
Sally said...I have many doubts about this study. Most importantly, it seems from the article as if there were two groups of subjects: one group did not use Facebook in their daily lives while the other group did. The two groups cannot be compared unless each subject was randomly assigned to a group and told either to have Facebook open (experimental group) or to not have it open (control group). Otherwise, these findings break a fundamental rule of statistics: correlation does NOT prove causation. In other words, the fact that Facebook users have lower grades does not mean that Facebook causes lower grades.
Reply
9-10-2010 @ 12:05AM
honda583 said...I dont believe this at all.. I graduated with good grades and I used Facebook all the time!.. Maybe people just dont know how to multi-task or manage their time
9-09-2010 @ 12:11AM
YesICan said...i have a 4.0 and i'm addicted to facebook...so there
Reply
9-09-2010 @ 12:21AM
Ana Lisette said...I have found this to be true. Last year when I was in 9th grade, I found that if I was using Facebook during the week, my grades were a lot lower. It was such a distraction. Now this year, my mom has limited me to the internet only on the weekends and I'm getting a lot better grades than I was last year.
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9-09-2010 @ 12:25AM
Jessica said...Not to brag or anything but I'm constantly on Facebook while doing school work and studying and I'm on Dean's List. Studies are generally biased and results can be tweaked to make a case for the study.
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9-09-2010 @ 12:28AM
John said...Using a GPA scale is a horribly flawed methodology because the difficulty of the classes ranges widely.
Most people can procrastinate and even multi-task then and pull out a B on a term paper.
Try doing that before a calculus or chemistry final and you will fail horribly on the final.
And scoring a 26% on a test that is worth 40% of your grade will totally obliterate your average.
A study on high school kids would be much more accurate, where the subject difficulty is much tighter amongst the various segments of the school population.
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9-09-2010 @ 12:58AM
Anonymous said...I can't say I'm surprised. Only a small percent of people can handle multitasking.
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9-09-2010 @ 1:11AM
mikewadestr said...What can you say. FaceBook is for idiots.
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9-09-2010 @ 1:28AM
Eric said...Wait, a different study said the opposite just a few months ago!
Google this, since i cant put links on here:
"Facebook Has No Effect On College Grades, Study Finds"
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9-09-2010 @ 2:16AM
andi said...oh please. what a load of bs.
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9-09-2010 @ 3:36AM
RJ said...T.v on while studying was an issue, listening to music while studying was an issue now this you will always have those who's study habits work for them and who are more diligent in their studies and others who take it less seriously. My question would be what were the students individual averages before social networking have they plummeted? If they are smart which i would hope so if they are going to college they would clue in to their study habits and make the necessary adjustments to pull up their grade.
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9-09-2010 @ 6:03AM
Joe said...The study might be flawed - cause/effect. Maybe it's not Facebook that makes students dumb. It is dumb students who spend too much time on facebook!
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