Facebook effects on students: A review of Literature
David Sotomayor
University of Texas at El Paso
English 1312 Facebook effects on students Abstract
In these days approximately 90% of the student population has some type of membership or account in the various social sites, in this literature review we will focus specifically on the largest social site today, Facebook. This literature review will provide information on whether this social site affects the student’s performance at school or if it doesn’t, also the history of what Facebook is and some studies performed on the subject.
ENGLISH 1312 Facebook effects on students
Facebook effects on students: A Review of the Literature.
Now a days we see how students are less interested in school matters, how they are more interested in social sites compared than using the internet for intellectual purposes. The social site Facebook has been said to affect the performance of students and does not affect others. A review will be done of this concern and will be better understood by answering these questions:
1.What is Facebook?
2.Is the use of Facebook affecting the performance of students at school?
3.Is there a better performance at school for students that do not have Facebook accounts compared to the ones who do?
4.What kind of policy would encourage students to focus more on schoolwork than on the social site?
The following literature review will focus on these questions providing more information about the subject.
ENGLISH 1312 Facebook effects on students
What is Facebook?
Facebook is the largest social site in the world today, launched February 2004 by Harvard students Mark Zuckerberg and his roommate Eduardo Saverin. Facebook was originally created for Harvard students only, for them to keep in touch when they were away from the campus, but the site has been now expanded worldwide with now having more than one billion active users, the majority of these users are still college students. It has been also very famous for being a distraction among the students.
Is the use of Facebook affecting the performance of students at school?
According to a study done by psychologist Paul A. Kirschnera of the Centre for Learning Sciences and Technologies at the Open University of the Netherlands there was an noticeable low G.P.A. score for the 219 American students he tested, they had a typical grade average of 3.06. The students that were more affected by Facebook were the ones that had this site on their mobile devices and that when they were studying they would also be receiving messages from Facebook and that distracted them, they could not do the multi-task of studying while receiving messages of this site as they are used to multi-task with everything else.
ENGLISH 1312 Facebook effects on students As said on nbc.com:
Choney, Suzanne (2010, September 7). Facebook use can lower grades by 20 percent. NBC news. Retrieved November 2nd 2012, from http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/39038581/ns/technology_and_science-back_to_school/t/facebook-use-can-lower-grades-percent-study-says/#.UJcxiXb7I7s
On the other half a study performed by Reynol Junco a professor form Lock Having University says that Facebook can not be blamed for lower grades of college students that in fact some activities performed on Facebook actually help increase the students grades by the students using this site as a tool for study such as checking up on friends and sharing links. The real problem was when students started distracting themselves by instead of taking advantage of how Facebook can help their study’s, they would start to update they’re status and that would completely distract them from their studies.
As mentioned in Professor Junco’s study:
Bonilla, V (2011, October 14). Time on Facebook (kind of) helps (and really doesn’t hurt) your GPA. USA Today College. Retrieved November 2nd 2012, from
ENGLISH 1312 Facebook effects on students http://www.usatodayeducate.com/staging/index.php/ccp/facebook-helps-student-grades-study-says
Also I conducted an interview to a University student who uses Facebook to see if he personally believes this site has affected, improved or has not affected his performance in school:
-Hello, what is your name and age please?
-My name is Ricardo Sotomayor I am 20 years old.
-Are you a College student?
-Yes, I am.
-At what college do you attend?
-I am in El Paso Community College.
-Do you have a Facebook account?
-Yes, I do as everybody in my school I’m sure does.
-How is your GPA score in school right now?
-Currently my GPA score is very low a 1.7 to be exact.
-Do you believe that Facebook has to do something with your low GPA score?
ENGLISH 1312 Facebook effects on students -I do, every time I am trying to study and I have Facebook open I always get distracted, and can’t really study. If I want to get things done I have to close all Facebook windows on my computer and on my cellphone as well.
-Do you think there are helpful tools on Facebook for studying?
-Personally in my opinion, no, even if I am doing homework with a friend through Facebook I always seem to get distracted by posts made by other people.
-Thank you very much for your time, and answers.
Sotomayor, R (2012, November 2). Personal Interview.
In an other study done by Trudy Hanson we see how college students spend very few time doing school related activities compared to the time they spend on social sites, if the time they spent on social sites they would use to do school related activities there grades would be exceptional, taking in mind that they spent up to 6 hours daily on these social sites as shown in the study.
Is there a better performance at school for students that do not have Facebook accounts compared to the ones who do?
ENGLISH 1312 Facebook effects on students A study done in Ohio by Aryn Karpinski demonstrates how college students who use Facebook spend less time studying, doing school related activities and have a lower grade point average than students who have no signed up for the social network website. This study shows how Facebook users average GPA score is between 3.0 and 3.5, while the non users average GPA is between 3.5 and 4.0, also recorded on this study is the time spent studying by the users and non users. A Facebook user will spend about five hours a week studying, on the other half a non-user of this site will spend 11 to 15 hours per week studying.
Also it is shown how students with paying jobs are less likely to use Facebook and the students that are enrolled in school extracurricular activities are more likely to use this social site.
In an other study done in February, Oxford University neuroscientist Susan Greenfield warned us that social sites like these where infantilizing the human brain like a small children’s by providing instant gratification and shortening the attention spam.
According to Gary Smalls book “iBrain: Surviving the Technological Alteration of the Modern Mind” people who spend time in social sites have decreased ability to understand facial expressions and understand facial gestures. This is affecting
ENGLISH 1312 Facebook effects on students Primarily the young people since young minds are the most sensitive. And people that did not use these sites did not have any of these problems at all.
What kind of policy would encourage students to focus more on schoolwork than on the social site?
Currently most of middle schools have Facebook banned on their campus, since students are getting distracted on the site than paying attention in class. There should be a policy for Colleges of blocking Facebook two a weeks prior to exams and on the exam week and also to block Facebook on students who are not doing their homework and having low grades, I believe that this policy will have a huge impact on students grades.
Conclusion
In this literature review we saw how Facebook in most of the cases does affect directly the grades of college students, even though in some cases it helps them achieve better grades, by correctly taking advantage of the tools provided by Facebook, but most students cannot multitask and will get distracted with this site, and by the studies shown how non-users have better grades than the users it does have an effect on student GPA.
ENGLISH 1312 Facebook effects on students References