Nope.
From the Chronicle of Higher Education blog:
Study Finds No Link Between Social-Networking Sites and Academic Performance
By Kelly Truong
“Spend as much time on Facebook as you want—it won’t affect your GPA, a new study says.
Researchers at Northwestern University found no connection between time spent on social-networking sites and academic performance. The study, the results of which appear in the latest issue of Information, Communication & Society, included responses from approximately 1,000 first-year students at the University of Illinois at Chicago.
Sites such as Facebook and MySpace had no effect on grades, despite how often students used them or how many they used.
Eszter Hargittai, associate professor of communication studies and sociology at Northwestern, suggests that the benefits of social-networking sites may cancel out the distractions they pose.
“You could go on there and waste your time,” she said. “On the other hand, you can connect with your classmates, get information about homework assignments, get to know people better, and feel more comfortable engaging with them on academic matters.”
A past study at Ohio State University suggested that students on Facebook earn lower GPA’s than nonusers. However, the scholar who did that research later said that she lacked enough data to determine whether that conclusion was true.”
Apparently if you’re a good student you’re good and if you’re not, you’re not. I remember when people told me I’d be dumber than my parents because I watched TV from such a young age. That may or may not be true but it seems every generation has it’s twaddle about the impact of technology and social change – TV, phones, movies, music, dancing, rock & roll, haircuts, tats, the web. It’s a rich and glorious tradition to poop on every generation as they come up.
Stephen
One Response
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My experience is that students who use FaceBook while in class do not do as well as their classmates. In fact, it’s pretty clear to me that students who use FaceBook during class have grades that compare to students who do not attend class at all.
My students are post-secondary, and the likelihood of them using FaceBook (or texting, or a host of other distracting activities) seems to correspond to their age. That is, younger students are more likely to miss class, and are more likely to distract themselves during class.