Bryan C. Visser
Professor Nick Breems was ready to give his normal 8 a.m. lesson, but not all of his students were ready to hear it.
And he knew why.
He had seen that they had submitted their assignments at 2a.m. the previous night and updated their Facebook status at 2:30 a.m.
“If you were tired and wanted to go to bed and wanted to go to bed and you finished your assignment at two in the morning, then why did you stay up another half an hour on Facebook?” said Breems
This scenario points to what an Ohio researcher believes is a larger trend of Facebook use affecting the studies of college-going students.
Aryn Karpinski at Ohio State University did a study on the connection between college students using Facebook and poor academic performance.
In this study, Karpinski found that the average time Facebook users spent studying averaged from one to five hours a week, while they earned a 3.0 to 3.5 GPA.
Those who did not use Facebook were found to study roughly 11 to 15 hours a week and earned a 3.5 to 4.0 GPA.
“We can't say that use of Facebook leads to lower grades and less studying – but we did find a relationship there," Karpinski said in an online publication by Ohio State University.
After talking about the times he had seen students stay up late to use Facebook after homework, Professor Breems explained scenarios in which he had seen the reverse take place.
“I have also seen it where a student turns in an assignment at two in the morning and their Facebook status was updated at 1:30 a.m. So they’re doing Facebook instead of their assignment. It’s not my place to say what they should be doing when, but most people would agree with me that that’s probably not optimal,” said Breems.
Like Karpinski, Breems was fairly quick to clarify that the procrastination he had seen was not necessarily the result of Facebook.
“The computer enables that. I wouldn’t say it causes it. It enables students to react to boredom in a way that isn’t all that helpful,” said Breems.
Mark Volkers, professor of digital media at Dordt College, shared that while he thought Facebook is a useful social tool that he uses for promotional reasons, it can also be a distraction from what needs to be done.
“I have less sympathy for students who do poorly on tests or papers because it’s easy to assume now that they haven’t prepared properly because they spent too much time doing something else. And it probably had something to do with media,” Volkers said.
A closer look revealed Dordt students did not entirely fit into the norm Karpinski gave.
Not counting papers or other assignments, Dordt sophomore Chris Schultz spends anywhere from five to 10 hours studying during a typical school week.
During that same Monday to Friday period, he spends 15 to 25 hours on Facebook; much of that time is spent just chatting with other people.
“I spend more time on Facebook than I should,” Schultz said.
He said that if he were to cut back on some of his Facebook time he would work on homework a little bit more and do more activities in the campus center game room.
He had not noticed any significant impact his time on Facebook had affected his grades and has made sure that he gets to bed at a decent hour to avoid a lack of sleep.
“I think there are other factors that figure into grades more than just time spent on places like Facebook,” Schultz said.
Dordt students Emil Talen and Karisa Vander Groef both spend 25 hours a week on studies and four to six hours a week using Facebook.
“I talk to a lot of people back home with it. There are a lot of events that are planned through Facebook,” Vander Greof said.
“It’s something I use to contact people from home because I come from Canada and I can’t just drive home for the weekend,” Talen said.
The two agreed that if they were to cut back on Facebook time, they would likely use that time to get more sleep.
Marissa Rieckhoff spends roughly 10 hours a week on Facebook, but as a nursing major, that time does not cut into the weekly 30 to 40 hours she spends in her studies.
“It more takes away from doing things with people in the present,” Rieckhoff said.
“I like socializing and Facebook is one way I can keep up with friends,” Schultz said.
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