To say the average student of today is ‘connected’ would be an understatement. With iPad and iPhone in hand, today’s student oozes web 2.0 and is really at the forefront at what it means to be living in the 21st century.
A big part of that display is how heavily students use social media and how it is helping to shape the way they learn and the way they perform. A recent study into this revealed some rather interesting facts, many of which run counter to the accepted belief about social media and its impact. A recent study revealed via an infographic that a staggering 92% of students are using Facebook. The average student visits Facebook 6 times a day, while spending an average of 24 minutes on the site.What was surprising coming out of the study was that the time spent on Facebook doesn’t necessarily correlate with not spending enough time studying. In fact, the majority of students surveyed said that spending time on Facebook actually helps with the studying process as they are able to tap into the knowledge base of friends and other online sources that are funneled through Facebook. And while some activities on Facebook had a negative impact on student GPAs, a surprisingly high number of activities impacted positively on higher GPAs.
In the end the conclusion reached was that while social media sites like Facebook take up a lot of students’ time, the overall impact of the time spent on the site was not a deterrent to good student performance.
Do you think social media sites like Facebook are a bad influence for students? Share your thoughts below.