Research Paper

http://mkoehler.educ.msu.edu/blog/2009/04/16/the-relationship-between-facebook-usage-and-academic-performance/

The relationship between facebook usage and academic performance

A recent study at Ohio state University by Aryn Karpinski and Adam Duberstein (Ohio Dominican University) found that facebook usage was associated with lower GPAs, and less time studying. Those who use facebook tended to have lower GPAs than those who did not, and it appears from the slew of articles written about it, that within the group that used facebook that more usage was associated with lower GPAs and less time studying.
This story is interesting for three reasons.

• First, it raises the question about the potential impact of facebook upon students time, and ultimately their academic performance. • Second, it illustrates the age old problem of correlation vs. causation. The inclination is to assume that facebook usage is causing lower academic performance because students are wasting valuable time. But of course, this could also be that lower performing students have always found ways to waste time, and this just happens to be the best measure of that in todays social-networked world. Simply, we don’t know yet. • Yet, the media is quick to make assumptions, and academics should be careful in how they talk to the media. Ms. Karpinski points out in a recent Chronicle of Higher Education article, that she never argued that there was evidence for causation. Yet, it’s clear from some of the quotes that it sometimes becomes easier to lead the media there (e.g., “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.”)

Dr. Matthew J Koehler

Abstract

There is much talk of a change in modern youth – often referred to as digital natives or Homo
Zappiens – with respect to their ability to simultaneously process multiple channels of information. In other words, kids today can multitask. Unfortunately for proponents of this position, there is much empirical documentation concerning the negative effects of attempting to simultaneously process different streams of information showing that such behavior leads to both increased study time to achieve learning parity and an increase in mistakes while processing information than those who are sequentially or serially processing that same information. This article presents the preliminary results of a descriptive and exploratory survey study involving
Facebook use, often carried out simultaneously with other study activities, and its relation to academic performance as measured by self-reported Grade Point Average (GPA) and hours spent studying per week. Results show that Facebook
®
users reported having lower GPAs and spend fewer hours per week studying than nonusers.

Corresponding author:
Prof. dr. Paul A. Kirschner, Centre for Learning Sciences and Technologies (CELSTEC), Open
University of the Netherlands, Valkenburgerweg 177, 6419AT Heerlen, The Netherlands,
[phone], [e-mail]

The Effects f Excessive Use of Facebook to the Study Habits of BC25 students of Silliman University
10 years in the 21st Century and a lot of things have changed. The way people communicate with each other has changed drastically. With the introduction and popularity of the internet brought an even smaller world. People from miles away could easily talk to one another without the use of a pen and paper. Snail mails are only done for important documents and birthday, Christmas or Valentines cards. Telegraphs is an alien term for youngsters and nothing but a part of history. The most common thing used for communicating, especially those who are countries apart, is social networking sites. Text messaging is convenient but communicating through social networking sites is free and even more convenient with options such as wall posts and chatting. Social networking sites as such Myspace paved the way through one of the best creations of the decade, Facebook.
Facebook is arguably the most popular networking website of today. Everyone from the young to the old is using Facebook, it as an efficient way of communicating and finding old friends. Apart from Facebook being a new and interesting way to interact with friends and family, there is a lot more things to do while logged on to the site. Users could play games, use other fun applications such as horoscopes, love tallies and typing challenges, find new friends and hunt crushes and guard significant others online.