Facebook use linked to lower grades

If you know me then you understand that I'm a fan of Facebook. I've listed it as one of my favorite Internet things. I've shared relevant pointless YouTube videos which it was the topic of. I've engaged in thoughtful discussion of the sociological ramifications of the world's largest social networking website. I've even set it up so that the 5 or 6 of you that actually read this blog can become my fans if you want.

So I'm sure you'll understand my disappointment when I read this, which was published a couple of weeks ago on ScienceDaily (via Freakonomics):

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. [...]

While this was a relatively small, exploratory study, it is one of the first to find a relationship between college students’ use of Facebook and their academic achievement.

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.

Personally I can't believe it. It doesn't make sense to me that an engaging technology that provides instant gratification from almost any location by bombarding the senses with an incomprehensible amount of information and quasi-addictive applications could possibly be distracting late adolescents/young adults from their studies. This doesn't necessarily mean Facebook is bad, though, as the study's author is quick to point out that correlation does not, necessarily, prove cause and effect:

“We can’t say that use of Facebook leads to lower grades and less studying – but we did find a relationship there,” said Aryn Karpinski, co-author of the study and a doctoral student in education at Ohio State University. [...]

Karpinski emphasized that the results don’t necessarily mean that Facebook use leads to lower grades.

“There may be other factors involved, such as personality traits, that link Facebook use and lower grades,” she said.

“It may be that if it wasn’t for Facebook, some students would still find other ways to avoid studying, and would still get lower grades. But perhaps the lower GPAs could actually be because students are spending too much time socializing online.”

It should be noted that this is a relatively small pilot study. What this means is that they'll use the data collected to design a larger, more conclusive study. It all involves math and statistical algorithms. I'd explain it in more detail, but I don't have time. I have to update my Facebook status...