Facebook fanatics face failure

Stan Beer
Monday, 13 April 2009 17:51

Business IT - Technology

It may be just one of those studies that incorrectly identify a causal link, but new research at a US university does appear to show that Facebook fans are likely to get lower grades than their non-Facebook counterparts. As for the reason, well that's as old as the hills.

A survey of 219 undergraduate and post-graduate students at Ohio State University revealed that Facebook users - more than two thirds of the students surveyed - had on average significantly lower grades than the non-users.

However, the co-author of the study, Aryn Karpinski, a doctoral student in education at Ohio State University, admits the study does not provide conclusive evidence that using Facebook leads to lower grades.

“We can’t say that use of Facebook leads to lower grades and less studying – but we did find a relationship there,” said Karpinski.

In addition, Karpinski herself is not a Facebook user and does admit to having feelings of antipathy toward use of the social networking site.

“For me, I think Facebook is a huge distraction,” she said.

However, before anybody jumps to the conclusion that Karpinski allowed bias to interfere with her scientific objectivity, she openly admits that the results of her findings could be due to other factors.

CONTINUED Page 2