Posted on 04/13/2009 11:31:32 AM PDT by MyTwoCopperCoins
LONDON: Fresh research has confirmed what many parents and teachers already feared: social networking sites are damaging students’ academic performance.
The researchers discovered that the majority of students who use Facebook every day are underachieving by as much as an entire grade compared with those who shun the site. In order to reach their conclusion, researchers discovered how students who spend their time accumulating friends, chatting and “poking” others on the site may devote as little as one hour a week to their academic work.
“Our study shows people who spend more time on Facebook spend less time studying,” the Times quoted Aryn Karpinski, a researcher in the education department at Ohio State University, as saying. “Every generation has its distractions, but I think Facebook is a unique phenomenon,” she added.
In the study, Karpinski and a colleague questioned 219 US undergraduates and graduates about their study practices and general internet use, as well as their specific use of Facebook. They found that 65% of Facebook users accessed their account daily, usually checking it several times to see if they had received new messages. The amount of time spent on Facebook at each log-in varied from just a few minutes to more than an hour.
The Ohio report shows that 68% of students who used Facebook had a “significantly” lower grade point average than those who did not use the site. “It is the equivalent of the difference between getting an A and a B,” said Karpinski.
Idiocracy.
Freeze yourself. You’ll be a genius in 100 years.
There are times when having no friends, colleagues or associates works in one’s favor.
No wonder nerds are so damned smart.
Chicken or egg question. Which came first? Lack of interest in schoolwork or Facebook?
Let’s say you were able to get the slackers off Facebook. Doesn’t mean they will spend any more time studying.
LOL! IDK why! Wat do u think?
I hear computers rewire the users’ brains...
Well, like I used to say a long time ago, the egg does need a chicken to incubate it... :^)
Doesn’t it seem like the number of slackers has increased exponentially? Social networking sites aggravate the problem by becoming very efficient ego-magnifiers. But, yes, nothing much can be done about it, other than parental responsibility and supervision.
I already learned all I need to know about this study from 12 word summary on Twitter ... *s*
Could it be that their academic performance was always in jeopardy by virtue of their complete lack of interest in things academic? A particular type of person migrates to those sites. It's very likely that, if you made mention of the "third planet from the sun" and asked them to identify that planet, they would be entirely clueless.
The superficiality of their lives and the trappings of their "world" are soothing and pose no threat to the space occupied by these types. It is only when reality sets in that anxiety sets in as well for these people. They will all, in the end, always vote for Democrats.
Some people use the Internet for knowledge and information. They are not distracted by the social networking stuff.
Others, use it for laziness. So you have accelerated stupidity on one hand, but accelerated learning on the other.
Unfortunately the idiots will vastly outnumber the others!
Well, computers rewire them to make people stupid... :-)
Well dang! Those new horseless carriages, electric candles,and wireless talking boxes will be the end of civilization!!!!
What a bunch of crap.
Classic example of correlation/causation fallacy.
When people no longer try to remember how to do stuff, they just remember who can... It’s called management! Social networking is just the start of not needing to know how.
I heard this on the radio and I was thinking that it is just like saying, back in the sixties, that kids who listened to rock and roll on the radio did poorly in school.
I use facebook and since I work on a computer and go to school full time i spend a lot of time at the computer and i’m usually always logged onto facebook, but i probably type something on it only 5 times an hour. It’s not something that requires 100% of your attention, the problem is when kids just don’t care about school and that is the child’s fault and their parents’. Don’t blame the sites for failing to be a parent.
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