The time has arrived. It’s the middle of week seven — a week you have been dreading for the first six weeks of school. Midterms are here, and you should be studying like mad. What are you doing instead? Logging onto Facebook.
Suddenly, your comprehension of the material in front of you begins to fade, and you continue to waste your time looking and laughing at photos from that party last weekend. Do you ever wonder what college would be like without this social media tool?
Facebook has become the content of our conversations. We ask one another questions about who said what on which status or what kind of comment someone left on your photo.
Five years ago, no one knew what “liking” a status was or even what this social media website would become. Older generations have begun referring to the networking site as “Spacebook,” which could hold multiple meanings. It could be referring to the lack of separation between MySpace and Facebook or because it’s where social networkers go when they simply want to space out.
A recent study at Ohio State University found that “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 … Typically, Facebook users in the study had GPAs between 3.0 and 3.5, while non-users had GPAs between 3.5 and 4.0.”
This may seem like a “duh” statistic, but it is somewhat surprising to see that this time spent on Facebook is directly affecting how well we do in school. Some people even give up Facebook for Lent and have their friends change their passwords during finals to fight the urge to log on and waste time. Is it something we really enjoy that much? Or is it just another way to distract ourselves from what we should be doing?
University junior Ashley Nyquist said there is a direct connection between the amount of studying she does and the amount of time she spends on Facebook per day.
“Facebook is actually quite detrimental to my studies and my social life,” Nyquist said. “It is strangely addicting and time consuming and creates another world of drama. It can be a useful tool for communication, but so can email and text messaging. I’ve never discovered anything socially or academically pleasing by browsing my Facebook.”
University junior Emilie Hartvig agreed that Facebook has a negative impact on college students.
“Facebook takes up a lot of unnecessary time and also keeps me up at night when I should be sleeping,” Hartvig said.
Whether we are using it as a tool to connect with our friends or yet another way to avoid studying for our finals, Facebook seems to be having a negative effect on the student part of being a college student. Depending on its purpose, Facebook can be a great way to network. For others, it can be a waste of time.
University junior Nathaniel Taylor agreed, saying “Facebook is a great social networking tool, but is an incredible distraction from homework and other assignments. Although I don’t think that it directly affects grades, it provides another distraction for students.”
Whether or not you think Facebook is a waste of time, or an excellent way to communicate, ask yourself this question: “How many hours a day do I spend on Facebook?” Then compare that to how many hours you spend a day studying or doing homework. If it’s equally proportional, then you’ve got nothing to worry about. If it’s not, however, maybe you should consider logging off. And if it’s a trend that will come and go, will you regret the time you wasted online?
— Alisha Roemeling