More material continues to be added to the debate over whether sites like Facebook help or hurt undergraduate students. Last month, preliminary research by a graduate student at Ohio State University caused a stir by suggesting that the use of social networking websites was somehow connected to lower college grades. Now, a new study published by researchers at Northwestern University, Stanford University, and the University of Pennsylvania suggests that if anything, Facebook users have higher grades than students who do not use social networking sites.
While both studies are very preliminary, their findings have sparked a great deal of discussion and debate. Many professors and some students regard sites like Facebook as distractions from coursework and assaults on students’ attention spans. Others see no harm and a great deal of benefit from being able to connect with peers and share ideas and information more easily online. Some instructors have even incorporated social networking into their curricula and have encouraged students to friend them online.
Social networking sites are becoming an increasingly large part of the lifestyle associated with attending college, and are increasingly being used as tools in college admissions, as well. Do you use any of these websites? Have you seen any connection between your internet habits and your grades?
indeed this social network heavily compromises on the students’ performance and distracted them from their academic foci to chating foci.less time is now given to meaningful research on imperical studies that shapes the future.
the infomrmation technology at this juncture is being misused.therefore i challenge my fellow students to to use resources timeously so as to bring about challenging professionals tomorrow not chatful individuals
you mean empirical. looks like you have spent too much time on facebook yourself.
Social networking sites do compromise students’ ability to perform, that is, if the student allows it to. Every individual has a free will. With that being said, students can either decide to use social networking sites as a tool, or it decide to let these sites act as self destruction vehicles. Like many other things, social networking sites can either help you, or hurt you.
If a student is distracted by Facebook…they could be distracted by anything. It’s not Facebook that makes people have lower grades. It’s the person themselves. If they can’t commit themselves to their work and choose to be on Facebook for 5 hours every night. Then they wouldn’t have any drive to do their homework if Facebook wasn’t there….they would go out with friends, or play video games, or sleep. If they didn’t want to do it they’d find something else to distract themselves. Facebook isn’t the only tool people use as procrastination. And having lots of people at your fingertips to talk to is a welcome tool, especially if you have lots of friends who are in your classes, or even your teacher. It makes getting in touch with classmates easy.
I agree that the use of social networks can be a major distraction and believe that there are many school aged individuals using them for non-productive purposes. However, if refrained and used to connect for learning and conversing with an educational focus, social networks could be invaluable. Unfortunately what I have witnessed has not been as productive as it has been distracting…along with the cell phone texting!
I absolutely believe social networking affects a student’s performance. It has also branched into the workplace, affecting workplace performance. I recently deleted my facebook entirely to concentrate on school work instead of other peoples lives that I do not even care about! I has deactivated it several times, but finally said enough is enough and completely deleted it. For procrastinators like me, social networks are fabulous. You can sit on these websites for hours on end and avoid schoolwork. I can see how some people are disciplined enough to avoid these sites when they have work to get done, but then again I know many people that facebook instead! Happy to say that I know longer do!
facebook can be a distraction but for the most part it is a very good way to comunicate with other students that you might not know well enough to have an awkward talk with on the telephone. You can use the idea of distraction with anyone. Phone conversations can be distracting and you can easily be off topic, text messaging or even tutoring you can be distracted by topic. A person’s grade is not affected by sites or techonology it is affected by the effort or lack there of that the student puts into something. if a student wants to learn they’ll learn dispite the distractions. So don’t try and throw blame on techonology or social networking when the student is prob the one with the problem.
Facebook, MySpace, and other similar online social networking sites are sometimes a distraction in a student’s education - however they may also prove to be very beneficial. Like everything in life, it all depends on the individual and how he or she decides to use such resources. If one decides to use these sites purely for means of entertainment or casual communication, then they can definitely be considered unnecessary and harmful distractions. However, if a student decides to use these sites mainly for conversing about relevant topics such as assignments, research, lectures, etc. that they share in school, there should be no issue.
I believe it is all up to the individual, and if signs were to show of inattention and inability to do well in school, they would most likely have appeared much earlier on, making the students less likely to be considered for any college in the first place; having long been exposed to these distractions, students’ attention, and therefore grades, would already have dropped, and it is unlikely that anyone with such an issue would have made it to the point of being considered for a vigorous college system at all. In my opinion, students should be allowed to use all resources to the best of their abilities, and so long as they can show enough control to maintain their grades and foci, with or without these sites, this is a non-issue.
The studies to me sound like they have different foci. The results of the OH State study sound like an attempt to determine whether social networking sites cause lower grades, while the results of the Stanford/NW/UPenn study sound as if it simply found a correlation between students with higher grades and students who use social networking sites.
This difference in focus may be the reason they have different results. Students who use Facebook may have higher grades than those who don’t for entirely unrelated third factors. (This is the fundamental issue of correlation: cause and effect cannot be determined.) Yet, among those who do use Facebook, increased use may lower grades as students become increasingly involved in the virtual world of cyberspace.
It would be interesting to see some of the parameters of the studies to determine more conclusive results.
I don’t believe that site like facebook hurt undergrad students. Its simply the students who have little self control of them selves and allow themselves to be distracted. Sites like facebook is great for networking and finding old friends. People just need to know what is a greater priority. Checking their Facebook every night of studying.
I don’t think entirely so. My best friend is valvictorian of a large school, and she’s practically on it all the time.