A recent study showed that students who use Facebook while trying to study have an average GPA of 3.06, while non-users maintained a much higher 3.82 GPA. I don’t toggle to Facebook as often as many of my peers. I’m content only checking once a day to see if any of my friends have had life-changing moments while I was away from my computer. However, the couple of times I have indulged in Facebook when I had something more important to do means I probably didn’t help my studying.
Let’s face it: we can’t multi-task. I can barely walk and listen to my iPod at the same time. So, if students have a choice between shutting off Facebook to study or having a lower GPA, I think the choice is obvious.
It doesn’t mean you have to delete your Facebook account completely. If something so important happens in one of your friend’s lives that it should interrupt your studying, then that friend should contact you through such old-fashioned means as a cell phone, or perhaps, in person. That way, everybody wins.
Editor-in-chief Libby Davis for the editorial board.