APU Careers & Learning Online Learning

Facebook Use and Your Grades

facebook and gradesI’ve written about taking brain breaks before.  For me, a brain break consists of spending 10 minutes or so perusing Facebook.  I admit it.  I’m hooked.  Sometimes, I just need that mindless reading and catching up to recharge my brain and get back to work.

I stumbled upon this article on Mashable the other day.  Entitled, No, Facebook is Not Ruining Your Grades, it reminded me of the studies I’ve read about a dozen times that find that the use of social media actually helps you scholastically.

The study discussed in this article actually examined the correlation between Facebook and low grades.  It found something very interesting (and not very surprising to me): some kinds of Facebook use are correlated with higher GPAs. Music to my ears!

Here are a couple of points that stood out to me:

  • The average college student (according to the study) spends 106 minutes per day on Facebook and each increase of 93 minutes correlates with a GPA decrease of .12 points
  • Posting status updates and using Facebook chat generally meant a lower GPA, while checking to see what friends are up to and sharing links (my favorite kind of Facebook use, personally) suggest a higher GPA
  • What’s important about Facebook in an educational context has very little to do with how much time you spend on it (it’s how you use it)

Read the rest of the article here.  What do you think? How do you use Facebook?

By N. Cooper

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