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Facebook and Grades in College

Well, this story sure got a lot of play on the web, in the blogosphere and on TV.

Ohio State University published this on their research website:

STUDY FINDS LINK BETWEEN FACEBOOK USE, LOWER GRADES IN COLLEGE

Check out these blog postings as commentary:

Dangerously Irrelevant Blog
Facebook, college students, and lower grades
By Dr Scott Mcleod

Grown Up Digital Blog
Are Facebook use and university grades linked?
By Don Tapscott

AllFacebook Blog
Does Facebook Use Result In Bad Grades?
By Kristen Nicole

I even saw Don Tapscott interviewed a few times on TV.

I have a few key quotes:

"Correlation is not causation"

"The study?s authors caution against drawing any firm conclusions based on their research."

"It cannot be stated (that) Facebook use causes a student to study less? or get lower grades, says study co-author Aryn Karpinski, a doctoral student and graduate teaching associate at Ohio State University."

"There were a mere 15 undergraduate non-Facebook users in the study." (!!!!)

I also have comments, of course:

Honest to Pete, where do you find a university student who isn't on Facebook? Isn't it the equivalent to comparing automobile drivers to an Amish farming community?

Wouldn't the larger Facebook users' community be more diverse and representative than a small outlier cohort?

When did 15 students in a purportedly statistcally based study allow for such tentative conclusions to be headlined as "Study finds link between Facebook use, Lower Grades in College: College students who use Facebook spend less time studying and have lower grade point averages than students who have not signed up for the social networking website, according to a pilot study at one university." in a press release on the Ohio State University's website? I hope it's just an automated link rather than an indication of sloppy scholarship.

The potential of a study such as this to be used uncritically is high. Luckily most of the postings and TV commentary I saw were more critical and used judgment in interpreting the data. I fear others might just react to the soundbite. Hence. I'll collect some commentary here.

Stephen

Full post as published by Stephen's Lighthouse on April 20, 2009 (boomark / email).