So now it seems that if you communicate with your friends or go sneaking in the background on Facebook, your grades in school will drop by less than one grade point. Gone are the days of texting and talking on the cell phone to your friend ad nauseum. To leave bumper stickers, cute little flowers and teddy bears for your friends is more important. This time could be better spent studying, going to the library or even attending classes.
According to a study done by Aryn Karpinski, a grad student at Ohio State University, which surveyed 219 students, the more time spent on the networking phenomenon, Facebook, could well lead to lower marks in school. Too much time is spent posting the latest pictures, poking each other and sending kisses back and forth.
However, rather than sitting in a college bar stool and drinking excessively to entertain each other, this new computer program might take the bite out of being out for the night on the town and simply studying and looking up friends and acquaintances on Facebook. It would take the pressure off of the students who are less out-going and who spend a great deal of time on their own anyways. Facebook is a good way to add friends from classes and to keep connected to family and friends from back home.
Karpinsky found in his population sample that the students were generally younger and had a GPA of 3.0-3.5 whereas the non users were older and had higher grade point averages. The Facebook users spent up to 5 hours a week studying while the non-users spent between 11-15 hours per week. But let’s put this into perspective once again. Younger students are less likely to study longer periods of time when compared to their grad or upper classmen who had clear goals and career paths in mind. Nothing then has changed in the past 50 years!