Facebook and academic performance: Reconciling a media sensation with data

Abstract

A recent draft manuscript suggested that Facebook use might be related to lower academic achievement in college and graduate school (Karpinski, 2009). The report quickly became a media sensation and was picked up by hundreds of news outlets in a matter of days. However, the results were based on correlational data in a draft manuscript that had not been published, or even considered for publication. This paper attempts to replicate the results reported in the press release using three data sets: one with a large sample of undergraduate students from the University of Illinois at Chicago, another with a nationally representative cross sectional sample of American 14- to 22-year-olds, as well as a longitudinal panel of American youth aged 14-23. In none of the samples do we find a robust negative relationship between Facebook use and grades. Indeed, if anything, Facebook use is more common among individuals with higher grades. We also examined how changes in academic performance in the nationally representative sample related to Facebook use and found that Facebook users were no different from non-users.

The Use of Social Networking Sites among Malaysian University Students

“…A much publicized report by Karpinski (2009) seems to suggest a relationship between the use of Facebook and low grades. However, a more systematic research by Pasek, More and Hargittai (2009) found the opposite to be true; that higher-grade students use Facebook more compared to the lower-grade students. They reported that Facebook use does not seem to be an indicator of academic performance.…”

The Effects of Integrating Social Learning Environment with Online Learning

“…Hurt, Moss, Larson, and Lovelace (2012) compared students perception, attitudes, and educational outcomes using Facebook and conventional LMS, and showed that student group using Facebook reported better educational outcomes than the LMS group (Hurt et al, 2012). On the other hand, other authors found there was no relation between Facebook use and student success in learning (Pasek, More, & Hargittai, 2009), that there are no differences in GPA between students who did and did not use Facebook (Kolek & Saunders, 2008), and that even Facebook users can report a lower grade point average (GPA) (Kirschner & Karpinski, 2010). Junco (2012a) in his study showed that students spend significant amount of time on social networks, checking and engaging in variety of activities (Junco, 2012a), but concluded that time spent on the Facebook is a negative predictor on the GPA (Junco, 2012b).…”

The influence of social networks on the grades of medical students at University of Babylon, Iraq

“…Many studies have reported lower GPA and academic performance in students who use social networks for longer time 10,13,14 . Other studies; however, reported positive effect 10,15 or no relationship 13, [16][17][18][19] between social networks use and students grades. The variability of findings of these studies could be attributed to the different measures applied to assess social networks use or students grades.…”