Rising social media usage has no effect on lower grades, according to a study conducted by the University of New Hampshire. While there have been reports that claim the exact opposite, this is the latest investigation into the relationship between academic output and social networking.
The most important finding of the study is that 63% of students categorized as heavy users received As and Bs, while the other 37% received Bs and lower. Similarly, 65% of students marked as light users also received As and Bs, while the remaining 35% received Bs and lower.
The study, carried out by Whittemore School of Business and Economics professor of marketing Chuck Martin and his marketing research class Facebook, investigated the relationship between grades and student usage of various social sites: Facebook, YouTube, blogs, Twitter, Myspace and LinkedIn (listed in order of most used by the particular group of students that participated in the study).
Unsurprisingly, the study found that 89% of students said they use the sites for social reasons, while 79% said they used the social sites for entertainment. Only 26% use the sites for educational purposes and, still fewer, only 16% of students use the sites for professional reasons.
In the study, Facebook and YouTube were cited as the most popular sites, used by 96% and 84% of students, respectively.
In total, 1,127 of the 11,958 students at UNH participated in the study.
While this study was, by its very nature, limited in scope, we can still draw wider implications from its conclusions. The argument is that social media sites can be as distracting and detrimental as just about any other hobby or non-academic interest.
