A study published by Paul Kirschner (Open University of the Netherlands) in 2010 supports the fact that Facebook is a distraction.
“Facebook users reported having lower GPAs and spend fewer hours per week studying than nonusers.” Evidence from the study shows that students who use Facebook have GPAs almost one point lower than the GPAs of students who do not use Facebook.
Students at Langley agreed that Facebook is not exactly helpfulw hen it comes to efficiency. “Facebook is a distraction,” said junior Rachel Romanowski. “I’m not saying it’s a bad distraction, though.”
Some students, however, disagreed with the idea that Facebook has a negative impact on studeis. Junior Meredith Gallo argued that she uses Facebook not as a social tool, but rather as a way of contacting fellow students to better understands homework assignments and class projects.
Freshman Lacey Sternberg also believes that Facebook is a useful way to stay on top of things, saying, “My life is a lot less stressful with Facebook.”
Still, even for the student using Facebook for educational purposes, statistics question the impact that multitasking has on performance, even for students using Facebook for educational purposes, such as group project communication. Studies have found that only 2.5% of people tested can perform multiple tasks with no negative impact on any of those tasks, according to the “Psychonomic Bulletin and Review.”
Similarly, Gloria Mark and Victor Gonzalez, researches at the Unviersity of California Irvine, concluded that after an interruption has occurred, the average worker takes 25 minutes to refocus.
Ultimately, whether students choose to use these studies as motivation to minimize Facebook use, or to ignore the experiments altogether, is up to them.