Facebook Users Get Lower Grades

Then again, non-users study 11-15 hours a week
By Kevin Spak,  Newser Staff
Posted Apr 14, 2009 7:00 AM CDT
Facebook Users Get Lower Grades
Facebook users tend to study less.   (Getty Images)

College students who use Facebook are less likely to be crowing about their grades in status updates, according to a new study that found, perhaps unsurprisingly, that non-Facebooking students get significantly higher grades. The Facebook users all said in a survey that the site didn’t interfere with their study habits, but on average they spent only one to five hours a week studying—compared with 11-15 for non-users.

The average Facebook user had a GPA in the 3.0-3.5 range, while non-users had an average between 3.5 and 4.0. The study doesn’t necessarily prove that Facebook causes the dip, the researcher said—it might just be the distraction du jour for generally distractable students. “I’m just saying that there’s some kind of relationship there,” said the lead researcher, “and there’s many third variables that need to be studied.” (More Facebook stories.)

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