Monday, April 13, 2009

Facebook and Grades

It's important to remember that correlation does not equal causation:

Facebook users have lower overall grades than non-users, according to a survey of college students who also ironically said the social networking site does not interfere with studying.

That disconnect between perception and reality does not necessarily mean that Facebook leads to less studying and worse grades -- the grades association could be caused by something else. However, it does raise more questions about how students spend their time outside class on activities such as Facebook, part-time jobs and extracurricular activities.

3 comments:

Eric W. said...

Obligatory XKCD link:

http://xkcd.com/552/

Darren said...

Nice one :)

Ellen K said...

I think they should worry more about the impact of Worlds of Warcraft and other gaming sites. My kids are of an age where their friends are starting to marry. Many of them have gaming equipment in the bridal registry. In fact one girl is having problems getting her fiance to give up his various online gaming pursuits. I guess it could be worse.