Presentation Handout

IFA III-B May 6, 2015

Amanda Damasceno
Luiz F. M. Candido
Marina Filizzola
FACEBOOK AND ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE

QUESTIONS

Is there a relationship among...

1. ... time spent on facebook, frequency of facebook activities and grades?
2. frequency of checking facebook, frequency of FB activities and grades?
3. frequency of FB activities and time spent preparing for class?
4. frequency of checking facebook, frequency of FB activities and time spent
preparing for class?

RESULTS/DISCUSSION

Some authors found no relationship between Facebook (FB) use and the grades.
There is a lack of consensus about this subject because incongruent results. It
can be caused by different methods and measures.

Another point is that different uses of the Internet and Comunication

Technologies (ICT) or Information Technologies (IT) can produce different
results.

It is important to note that academic success relates strongly to time spent

studying and to effort invested. In the sources analyzed by the researchers FB
users reported studying fewer hours per week than non-users. It is consistent
with the observation that FB users presented a lower mean GPA1 (General Point
Average) than non-users. Also, it was noted that number of logins and time spent
of FB were related to lower overall GPA. The researchers observed that there is
a negative relation between time spent of FB and time spent preparing for class.

Another problem analyzed is the multitasking. Speaking about multitasking in

general, it is important to note that the empirical research has shown that we
cannot realize two or more activities simultaneously without impair our
performance. In relation to learning, researchers use the concept of cognitive

1 Something like the UFMGs RSG (Rendimento Semestral Geral).

bottleneck to describe our limited capacity of information processing. An

example, important for this presentation, is that surfing on internet while
studying overload our cognitive capacity, and therefore we are not able to keep
the information provided by one or another source.

CONCLUSION

The use of FB on academic performance has a positive and a negative aspect.

The positive aspect is related to sharing information and links, and checking
what friends are doing, because these are activities related to other academic
activities. On the other hand, the negative aspect is related in research to posting
status updates and using a lot FB chat, because these are socializing activities,
and time spent in socialing activities both online and offline is related to worst
grades.

So, FB is not necessarily harmful, but it depends on the kind of use. FB time
should not be greater than study time, and FB not should be used simultaneously
with study. FB has also educational relevance: course groups, socialize course
content, share course related information etc.

More studies are needed about the subject what students do on FB: lurking,
sending messages, posting photos, etc., and how each kind of internet use affects
students performance. Furthermore, the relation between FB and academic
performance remains largely unanswered, especially because what the studies
has shown is a correlation and not a causal explanation.

REFERENCES

JUNCO, R. (2011). Too much face and not enough books: The relationship between
multiple indices of Facebook use and academic performance. Computers in Human
Behavior, 28, 187-198.
JUNCO, R., COTTON, S.R. (2012). No A 4 U: The relationship between multitasking
and academic performance. Computers & Education, 59, 505-514.
JUNCO, R. (2015). Student class standing, Facebook use, and academic performance.
Journal of applied developmental psychology, 36, 18-29.
KIRSCHNER, P. A., KARPINSKI, A. C. (2010). Facebook and academic performance.
Computers in Human Behavior, 26, 12371245.
SKIERA, B., MINZ, O., SPANN, M. (2015). Social media and academic performance:
does the intensity of facebook activity relate to good grades? SBR, 67, 54-72.