Facebook Inc. (FB) ‘Helps’ Students Fail in School? Research Says …

Facebook Inc. (NASDAQ:FB) is certainly ubiquitous in the world with one in six people on the planet owning a profile on the social-networking site. And the young people – middle-, high-schoolers and college students – have certainly been very heavily involved and engaged, based on a lot of the surveys and research. But can Facebook actually contribute to failing grades of students? One Australia psychology student conducted some research and is making that claim – but how legitimate is it?

Milesa Cepe, a master’s degree student in psychology at the University of Canterbury, conducted some research of more than 300 high-school and college students and their parents to determine their level of interaction and engagement of the Facebook Inc. social platform and their academic performance. Cepe found that the more than high-schoolers checked Facebook every day, the lower their grades were. In the survey, she reported that 93 percent of the students surveyed checked Facebook at least once per day, with the high-schoolers spending more aggregate time online.

Cepe reported that 49 percent of students who checked Facebook Inc. four times per day or fewer reported passing grades (“merit” or “above merit”), while nearly 40 percent of those who check the site 21 times or more (!!) per day had low or failing grades.

Cepe was careful to qualify her own research, saying that Facebook Inc. usage could be just one reason for grades; other factors do seem to play roles. ‘The students may already be struggling academically and Facebook is used as a tool to relieve academic stress,” Cepe said. ”It’s important to note the 60 per cent of students who had high Facebook usage, 21 to 31 plus times a day, also achieved merit and above.”

Any thoughts about this? Would you consider Facebook Inc., or social networks in general, as a factor in grades? Let us know your thoughts about parenting, technology and social media in the comments section below.

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