Comments on: Facebook messes up your GPA

Researchers from Ohio State University find that those who enjoy Facebooking do less well in exams. Those who are on Facebook every day may do as much as one grade worse than those who don't.

[CuttlefishTech]

Article headline is misleading. "But I have a suspicious and entirely unscientific feeling that all this research may tell us so far is that bookwormy, people-uncomfortable types do well in school tests." You even state that this research proves nothing, yet the headline remains misleading.

[BigGuns149]

Provocative titles tend to get more reads and more eyeballs equal more ad revenue. Honest headlines don't make good business sense for media outlets.

[kwhsy82]

Might I suggest that either OSU academic standards have declined drastically or the researchers controlled for things like the personalities of the students?
Or that this report seems in tone with CNET, where reporting is scant? If the writer wants to slam the report, maybe he might read it first?
Also, it says grades dropped by a grade, so the nonbookworms presumably moved from C to D, and the bookworms moved from A to B.
It's not like I care about the OSU study; but anyone with kids sort of notes how distracting Facebook can be.

[this1!]

it it wasn't facebook it would be something else, theonion.com and collegehumor.com ate away at a ton of my time last semester, before that it was video games. Before that it was television, before that it was going outside to play. I really miss the latter, because now I've been forced to do better because I've put myself into this situation because I'd rather have fun than study. Thats normal though, right?

[rosegirl202]

Yeah, I'm an A-student and I go on facebook about a thousand times a day. So yeah.

[steveaustin1971]

Didn't seem to help your literacy skills much.

[beltzs1]

I agree with steveaustin.

[ZetaZeta_]

Grades reflect effort not intelligence. I'm not sure if grades even mean that much. Everyone seems to want them to, which causes stress to student who work their ***** off for a "good GPA." Sometimes GPA isn't everything.

[Demolition]

What's with kids these days? Back in my college days, we'd spend all our spare time in the pub, drinking beer and playing pool. Now, they barricade themselves in their dorm rooms with their noses pressed against a computer monitor! Shameful!

p.s. Get off my lawn!

[pwoon]

Well, back then there were no computers, internet, or even electricity.

[ewelch]

"p.s. Get off my lawn!"

LOL!!!!!!!!!

I knew there was a reason I don't like Facebook. Who wants to live behind a fracking walled garden?

[ladymystery38]

CuttlefishTech I totally agree with you that the headline is misleading, so rather than rewriting it let me just endorse your comment:

Article headline is misleading. "But I have a suspicious and entirely unscientific feeling that all this research may tell us so far is that bookwormy, people-uncomfortable types do well in school tests." You even state that this research proves nothing, yet the headline remains misleading.

See one way or the other something or someone will always be blamed for drop in a child's grades, but what is the real issue here. Are they trying to blame it on facebook.

Well turn off the computers take away their social life and see if it gets better. Let me know the result.

[bluemist9999]

I agree. Correlation is not causation. If the researchers asked a group of heavy Facebook users not to use Facebook for the upcoming semester (which is not likely) and then compared grades with a group of heavy Facebook users who continued to use Facebook---IF both groups had the same academic skill AND the same courses, then we might have something. All good studies need a control group.

Otherwise, there are too many variables to be sure Facebook is the sole cause of the lower grades.

[ascii3fhex]

I'm not sure I understand the implied tone of some of the replies. If having a social life takes precedence over higher education, then why go? Just hang out in your parent's basement with your nose against the screen and be done with it. Why pay tuition and buy books if you're just gonna blow it all off to spend time on social "notworking" sites? Facebook, Myspace, Twitter -- they're all just major time sinks.

[shardsofmetal]

I liked that pun.

[Dalkorian]

A friend of mine has an excellent expression for the likes of Facebook and Myspace - TIME VAMPIRES. Pretty fitting and amusing too!

[dalla_dude]

Correlation does not imply causation. There may be many other factors at play. Maybe the kids who spend all their time on Facebook are lonely and depressed. The large amount of time spent on these social networking sites is just a reflection of our strong need for attention from, acceptance of and connection with others, which is especially strong at the high school/college period of our lives. I know depression can definitely have a negative impact on performance in school. Just because the two may be correlated doesn't mean that Facebook is what is pulling us away from our studies. Don't blame fbook.

[Donnyton]

It's poor journalism to skew an inconclusive study into a hastily concluded correlation headline just to increase page views.

[pjhenry1216]

I think they should try to get grades for those individuals *before* they started spending a lot of time on Facebook. See if they can get ahold of their high school grades and try to do a comparison then. Maybe those who aren't as bright are just attracted to facebook. Great minds discuss ideas, average minds discuss events, small minds discuss people. What is facebook but a place to just discuss each other.

Correlation does not imply causation.

[flickrz]

Wow. So many facebook fanboys. I thought only Apple had this many fanboys. <- This is my opinion based on observation and not based on real numbers. :-P

[Dalkorian]

I'd almost be tempted to argue that M$ has more fanboys, but you're right. With M$ they're "apologists", not fanboys.

[electricTwo]

This research may be incomplete, but it does demonstrate something important. Many of the things that you learn by communicating with your friends are not valuable for school. The results of this study are consistent with other studies that show people with more friends and more non-school related hobbies do less well in school. The fact that Facebook is on the Internet may lead people to believe that it's somehow going to help them in school. But Facebook doesn't prepare you for the world of education.

The converse is also true: Schools don't prepare you for the real world! In the real world, the vast majority of workers have to use communication tools to achieve their results. If they get good grades, they probably didn't spend a lot of time communicating with others. If their job role doesn't demand that, it might be okay. But schools need to start demanding that students learn more about communication!

[dracoaffectus]

I hate when researches do these type of studies, look at their results, and assume causality. Looking at what they're really saying, which is just that people who use facebook regularly earn lower grades, does not tell you the actual cause of this relationship. Given the previous statement, there are still 3 possible explanations; either regular use of facebook causes lower grades, lower grades causes people to use facebook more, or something else causes people to do both use facebook regularly and get lower grades.

[TheTechKid]

I really don't think that facebook has that big of an impact on ones GPA. Before I was on facebook, I usually obtained A's in my classes and I still do. I admit that not everyone shares the same ability/enthusiasm for school that I do. Also, school has become more focused and includes subjects which I enjoy more. Because of these two reasons, it is impossible to compare my performance in higschool with that of college directly. However, given that I have neither fallen nor stayed the same grade-wise in college, it seems likely that facebook has a much smaller impact on one's grades (or at least my grades) than the title suggests. I then, as do some commenters and the author, conclude more research needs to be done for a definitive answer. However, I believe this because one needs to include how a person's grades before facebook and "after" facebook (aka actively a facebook member) compare.

[Gabey8]

Facebook's not the reason the GPAs dropped. People who haven't learned to budget their time properly are the ones whose GPAs have suffered.

They'll figure out how to get their college coursework done properly and on time and they'll graduate, or they won't and they'll wind up dropping out or flunking out. That's been a fact of life long before the internet and its many timesinks became ubiquitous.

[aznboy10cn]

I concur that the more time spent on facebook and other social sites impedes you from learning your material in school, which is why I have decided to deactivate my account for the time being. But not only facebook deserves this attack, virtually anything not related to school work can impede your learning...tv...parties...video games...etc. So in conclusion, yes facebook does have an impact but to a certain degree. It can't primarily be the source of blame.

[khush2]

This is correct.

[zoo123456]

Maybe they are on facebook beceause of the fact that they are a bit more stupid?
Ten ways to do something against stupid childeren: http://zonow.com/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=17

[FrenchieDC]

I second electric2s comments above. As a recently young person (now 31) I feel I got the old-school work ethic treatment growing up, while still enjoying every attention-degradation fad (TV, video games, Internet) during high school and college.

My GPA suffered, but I managed to get a job. Now, where I went to school and what grades I got are completely irrelevant. The job puts much more weight on interpersonal relationships than pure intelligence.

My opinion (and how I'm trying to raise my kid): you should be willing to sacrifice some educational rigor to get the real (and indulgent) experiences in life.

...but he's still grounded if he brings home 'D's.

[ascii3fhex]

FrenchieDC illustrates the prevailing attitude toward learning and education in this country. Note the implied contrast between what his kid will learn in school and real experiences in life (I don't know what he means by 'indulgent' in that context). This attitude is the reason the 21st century will belong to Asia. Unfortunately, it's not new. Education and learning have never really been respected in American culture. Our biggest heroes are the ones who eschew "all that fancy book-learning" and instead "learn from experience." And, as we see, we now are a nation where college graduates are barely able to do long division and have only the vaguest idea of how compound interest works.

Public schools, according to Thomas Jefferson, were to prepare people to make intelligent decisions in the voting booth. They were supposed to educate people so they could participate in the democratic form of government. We have completely forgotten this original objective of schools. Plenty schools don't even teach Civics anymore. But I digress. We've never really recognized that what takes place in school is really of value.

The problem isn't that social notworking sites are causing students' grades to decline. The problem is that our culture places little importance on formal education and learning.