Facebook users get lower grades

Karpinski hopes students will be inclined to do a little more self-monitoring when it comes to such activity outside of the classroom.

“There are plenty (of) case examples, I’m sure, of students who may read this and say, ‘Well, I’m on Facebook all the time and I have As,”‘ she said.

“I understand there are individual differences, but on the whole, students need to also be aware of how they’re using their time. Do they have good time management skills? Do they have the ability to say, ‘I’ve been doing this activity for too long and I need to cut myself off?”‘

Karpinski said there are a host of other variables that could be influencing the relationship, such as visits to different websites, like YouTube.

Students surveyed were also asked about what other kinds of academic and non-academic websites they use, and Karpinski is hoping to analyze those responses in the future.

The study also found a link between Facebook and activities outside the classroom. Students who worked 15 hours or less a week in paid work or were more involved in extracurricular activities were more likely to be Facebook users.

“Conceivably students that are working and attending college full-time may have large social networks that may include friends at school and work,” the study said. “Therefore, using Facebook to maintain their friendships may be of great importance to students who work long hours.”

Katherine Giroux-Bougard, national chair of the Canadian Federation of Students, said the site has been a great tool in promoting activities on campus, and helps keep students engaged with issues they wouldn’t necessarily hear about elsewhere.

Yet like anything else, the use of social networking sites is a question of self-regulation for students, she said.

“I think on the one hand, like anything else, like television or any other previous social networking tools there’s students that go overboard, but I think in the meantime, students can also lose out if they aren’t part of those sites.”

- The Canadian Press, graphic courtesy of The Huffington Post