Earlier today, I was sitting in my dorm and just decided to check out the social media websites. Before I knew it, thirty minutes had gone by and I had scrolled through my entire Facebook, Instagram and Twitter feeds multiple times.
We have all been in the situation in our dorms and decided it was time to do work. At this point many of us sit down, turn on our computers, open the Internet and log onto Facebook or Twitter. These sites are getting in the way of our schoolwork and social media is taking over our lives because we are on it 24/7 and we are losing touch with the world around us. While we are spending time on social media, we are losing time we could be studying and becoming more successful in school.
A study conducted in 2010, studied 219 United States students aged between 19 and 54. Non-Facebook users had an average GPA of 3.82 while; Facebook users had an average GPA of 3.06. Additionally, non-Facebook users spend on average, 88% more time studying than users. A quarter of the users even admitted that Facebook has had a harmful effect on their schoolwork performance.
There could be many explanations to the outcomes of this study and it is very hard to prove whether Facebook actually hurts school performance from looking at this one study. During this study, only 219 students in all of America were studied and to make this study stronger, a couple of hundred, if not thousands of students should have been studied. It is very hard to judge a whole group of students off of the number that was studied. Business Wire reports that by the age of 2, 90% of American kids have history online. This is scary… it really is. We do not know the effects that this has on children later in life and while these children are constantly growing we must ask, is technology as a whole ruining our generation?
Many students today have 4 or even 5 social media outlets. Facebook, Instagram, Vine, and Twitter all serve to between connect us to each other. It’s very interesting to see that there is a correlation between GPA and social media use. Those with fewer social media accounts have higher GPAs. While correlation does not mean causation, I can certainly see how this could possibly make sense. A study by Whittemore college of businesses conducted by a student researchers also furthers your blog. Its an interesting read and they approach the question at multiple angles. Overall it was a great read and very well organized. I especailly appreciated the use of the specific study in 2010. Makes the article really credible.