Want to raise your GPA? Quit Facebook


Junco found that students’ frequent Facebook checks adds up: 92 percent of student respondents used Facebook, and the average Facebook user spent more than an hour and 40 minutes on the site daily.

Junco said that like previous attempts to understand how extensive social media use affects college students’ GPAs, the latest research needs to be expanded before campus officials draw definitive conclusions.

“There is no way that this research settles the question about social media’s impact on student grades,” he said. “What this research shows us is that we need more studies.”

The debate over the distraction of social media on college campuses heated up last April when an infographic, “Is Social Media Ruining Students?” published by OnlineEducation.net, distilled reams of social media research and lists the pros and cons of how social sites are used on campuses.

Facebook and studying can be an academically toxic combination, lowering grades by up to 20 percent, according to the infographic.

The infographic also shows that students who abstain from Facebook–only 4 percent of U.S. college students can claim this–work three times more per week than their counterparts on the popular site.

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