Research Topic: The effects of Facebook use on student academic performance
Justification/Rationale: With the growing number of children, adolescents, and young adults on Facebook and the obsession continually expanding, it makes one wonder the effects this time consuming and distracting obsession is having on their number one priority—school. This leads me to ask two questions: What are the effects of Facebook use on a student’s academic achievement? And, does Facebook have a place in the classroom?
Scope of Research: The research will look at school- aged children (middle school through college), their time on Facebook, and the possible effects their Facebook usage has on their academic performance.
Research Hypothesis: Based on personal experience, observation of peers, and previous, related research I hypothesize that research will show a negative correlation between Facebook usage and academic performance. It is likely that regular Facebook usage, especially during times of academic focus such as homework and in-classroom instruction will show a negative effect on the GPA of students who partake in such usage. I predict that research will show this negative effect is due to the distraction Facebook presents which results in less time of academic focus. I also predict that the GPA changes will be significant enough to notice, but likely not drastic enough to really catch the eye of educators, students, and parents.
Possible Research Subjects: This research will focus on regular Facebook users between the ages of 11 (middle school) and 21 (college-age). All will be enrolled in an academic institution.
Possible Research Method(s): Research will take place over the course of one full academic school year. The subjects will be split into 3 groups based on age—middle school, high school, and college. Subjects will submit their GPA from the prior year at the beginning of the research period. At that point they will fill out a survey about their perceived Facebook usage and the effects it has on their academic performance, if any. This survey will ask questions about how much time they use Facebook, how often they find it to be distracting from their homework or classroom work, and if they believe it is affecting their academic performance. From there, students will be asked to closely observe and document how often they are actually on Facebook over the course of one week. This documentation will later be used to categorize the research results based on actual Facebook usage. Next the case study will begin. Over the course of the first semester of the academic year, no changes to the students’ Facebook usage time will be made. At the end of the first semester, students will submit their GPA. During part two of the study, the second semester of the academic year, the subjects will deactivate their Facebook accounts. Again, at the end of the semester the students will submit their GPA. Upon completion of the data collection, researchers will look at:
- Differences between perceived and actual Facebook usage
- How many students believe Facebook is affecting their academic performance
- The differences in GPA between Semester 1 (with Facebook) and Semester 2 (without Facebook)
- The correlation between actual Facebook usage time and those who saw an increase in their GPA during Semester 2
- Differences in effects based on age groups
Limitations of the study: As with every study, this research will have limitations/room for error such as:
- Depending on the honesty of students during survey and documentation of Facebook usage time
- The differences between the courses they are taking in Semester 1 and Semester 2. This alone could affect their GPA. (This is somewhat offset by the collection of GPA from the previous year to see where they stood.)
- Trusting that students truly deactivate their Facebook account during Semester 2
- Research time is quite extensive. There is a possibility of students not completing the research, resulting in lower data collection.
- Other factors that affect academic achievement such as race, gender, socio-economic status, etc. (Example of Knowledge Gap)
- Students’ use of other social media such as Twitter
Literature Review:
As stated in my hypothesis, I believed that my research and experimentation on this topic would show a negative correlation between student’s Facebook use and their academic performance. While reading literature on this topic I was surprised to find a different outcome than expected. Due to this, my literature review took on two parts in an effort to address both research questions: Does Facebook have a negative effect on academic performance? And, does Facebook have a place in the classroom?
In 2009, Karpinski and Kirschner presented the first major research that showed a negative correlation between GPA and Facebook usage beginning a hype of this research topic. Their article presented a descriptive and exploratory survey study involving Facebook use, often carried out simultaneously with other study activities, and its’ relation to academic performance as measured by self-reported Grade Point Average (GPA) and hours spent studying per week. Results show that Facebook users reported having lower GPAs and spend fewer hours per week studying than nonusers. This study, being the “foundation” of this topic, gained the reaction of many other researchers. To the surprise of many (because of the hype over the findings of this study), the majority of research that followed was unable to prove any significant negative effect of Facebook on student’s GPA.
With exception to the previous statement made, Helton studied 199 students at LeGrange College and presented similar results to Karpinski and Kirschner. An analysis between time spent on Facebook and GPA showed that the more time people spend on Facebook the lower their GPA seems to be. Helton concluded that further studies are needed to determine just how students can use this site effectively but it is clear that this site in some way is distracting college students and it is harming the academic success of students that have the potential to achieve a higher grade point average (2009).
Contrary to the previous two studies, Pasek, More, and Hargittai studied first year students at UIC and a national group of students. None of their results showed a significant negative correlation between GPA and Facebook use. However, this study was conducted in 2007-2008 and researchers suggested that in another few years it is hard to imagine what could happen in our constantly evolving media environment (2009).
While doing research and my literature review I found that the majority of the recent studies and articles were in regards to the idea of educators using Facebook in the classroom. I think that this is due to educators realizing that students will indeed be using Facebook, and likely in the classroom, so they need to make it a resource rather than an enemy. While Part I of my literature review presents no major correlation between Facebook and lower GPA’s, it does show that it is a distraction to students. Part II of my literature focuses on the question: Is there an aspect of Facebook educators can use to enhance student learning?
One idea presented during my research was the idea of teachers having Facebook. This would allow students to connect on a more personal, but still professional, level with their teachers. Mazer, Murphy and Simonds found that students who viewed an instructor’s website with high levels of mediated immediacy, including forms of self-disclosure, reported high levels of motivation and affective learning, indicating positive attitudes toward the course and the teacher (2007).
In another study of Facebook use by professors, Mendez, Curry, Mwavita, Kennedy, Weinland, and Bainbridge found when analyzing their data that those students who had professors as Facebook friends had a higher self-reported GPA than those who did not. Those with professor or instructors as friends had a GPA of 3.42 as compared to those who did not with a GPA of 3.33 (2009). An extension of this idea would be having a class Facebook, acting as a place where students can post questions about assignments, respond to journal prompts, etc.
Contrary to the previously discussed study by Mendez et al., Kumpikaite, Duoba, and Taraskevicius presented a study about the popularity of social media in daily life. Part of their studied researched student and teacher relationships on Facebook and students report to not comfortable with communicating with teachers on Facebook. However, they did predict that Facebook will become a regular study process in the next decade.
In conclusion, the literature I found on this topic did not back up my hypothesis as I expected. While I did find many newspaper articles on the negative correlation between Facebook use and GPA, they were not academic sources and therefore their agenda is not trustworthy. Because of the lack of current research on correlation between Facebook and GPA I did have to extend my research topic to Part II which included Facebook’s place in the classroom. This does seem sensible though because that is where education is moving—“if you can’t beat them, join them.”
