Quantcast

Don't have an account? Register Now! Forgot password?

Related Articles
News

Study Links Facebook Use With Lower GPAs

Posted 04/15/09 at 05:02:54 PM  by Andy Salisbury

comment Commentsprint Printemail EmailDeliciousDiggStumbleUponRedditFacebookSlashdot

According to a recent pilot study, students that use Facebook regularly spend less time studying and have lower grade point averages than those that haven’t even signed up for the site.

“We can’t say that use of Facebook leads to lower grades and less studying – but we did find a relationship there,” stated Aryn Karpinski, a doctoral student in education at Ohio State University and a co-author of the study. According to the report, hardcore Facebook users have GPAs between 3.0 and 3.5, while non-users are packing a GPA in the range of 3.5 and 4.0.

However, more than three-quarters of Facebook’s users maintain that their use of the site doesn’t get in the way of their important study time.

A 3.0 isn’t bad, but if having a Facebook account is the difference between a 3.0 and a 4.0, I’ll be the first to close out my account! Though, I get to keep playing WoW, right?

 

Image Credit: Facebook

COMMENTS:2
TAGS: facebook, college, study, Ohio State University, GPA
COMMENTS
avatarPoor studies linked to sloppy thinking and bad conclusions

Submitted by flatlander on Thu, 04/16/2009 - 2:00am

The average non-facebook user has a GPA between 3.5 and 4.0? A better conclusion from this study is that grade inflation is rampant at Ohio State. This junk science reminds me of the original landmark study "proving" a link between television violence and violent behavior. They showed kids a video of an inflatable clown being punched and then put the kids in the room with an inflatable clown. Guess what? Kids punched the inflatable clown. (Cue the boxing the clown jokes). Immediately after this study came out, they censored every Bugs Bunny / Road Runner cartoon. Then there was the study that linked violent video game to real-life violence. They had two guys face off on a video game and then the winner subjected the loser to a painful penalty by having the loser hold their hands in cold water. Shockingly enough, the winner did make the loser suffer. Well, when i was kid we used to play Rock, Paper, Scissors and the guy who lost would get a two-fingered swat from the winner - we did our best to cause as much pain as possible too.

Login or register to post comments
avatarStop the hype, and stop

Submitted by Nuxes on Wed, 04/15/2009 - 7:56pm

Stop the hype, and stop posting such piss-poor research.  The size of the sample was 219 (at one university), out of 200 million. Seriously, MaxPC, don't encourage this abuse of the scientific method.

http://xkcd.com/552/

Login or register to post comments
This Month's Issue
Maximum PC
SUBSCRIBE NOW
AND SAVE!
FEATURE Build a Crazy-Fast $647 PCFEATURE Six Single-Band 802.11n Routers ReviewedHOW TOTweak BitTorrent and FirefoxFEATUREClose Look at ClarkdaleWHITE PAPERLCD Panel Technology