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<p>[Facebook</a> use can lower grades by 20 percent, study says - Technology & science - Tech and gadgets - Back to School - msnbc.com](<a href=“http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/39038581/ns/technology_and_science-tech_and_gadgets/]Facebook”>http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/39038581/ns/technology_and_science-tech_and_gadgets/)</p>
<p>Aside from exploiting your children’s personal information, Facebook is busy helping them perform poorly in school. Isn’t technology great!</p>
<p>I’m sure for every college dropout Facebook addict one could also find an academic superstar heavy Facebook user. It’s a tool… it’s the user that determines if it’s used for good or bad.</p>
<p>^Exactly.</p>
<p>I’m a fairly heavy Facebook user, and my grades are the same as they’ve always been (above a 3.5).</p>
<p>It’s likely to be one thing or another blamed. If not Facebook, then Xbox, or texting, or reality tv, or whatever…! Yep, just like other vices, it the user that determines the use and control of the “device”.</p>
<p>My D doesn’t use facebook- but her college has other online resources for students that are quite active. ( she also has unlimited texting on her phone 
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<p>I’ve heard the The social network paints FB in such a negative light that you will want to go home and scrub your computer, but I haven’t seen it & I like the way that I can easily get a lot of information about what my friends and acquaintances are doing, without having to gossip on the phone or read a bunch of emails.</p>
<p>( BTW- I don’t play games on FB & I hide similar activity from others- I have about 150 " friends" and while some never post- I really enjoy seeing pics & comments from those who do- I also think, that as an apergery sort of person, I don’t really do that great with face to face interaction anyway- :o )</p>
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I agree. I used Facebook a lot last year, and came out valedictorian of my class. But i’m probably the exception and not the rule</p>
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You can’t blame Facebook. You blame students for not having enough control over Facebook and other technology to use it moderately, or at least not to the point where it effects their performance in school</p>
<p>Is there any data regarding how much College Confidential affects your grades? This is a semi-serious question, because I think it could either raise or lower them.</p>
<p>LOL, SaintSaens!</p>
<p>LOL, my Facebook addict D says it only lowers her grades by 10%, not 20.</p>
<p>“I’ve heard the The social network paints FB in such a negative light that you will want to go home and scrub your computer,”</p>
<p>Not really. Before I even left the theatre, I posted on facebook (via my droid) how much I loved the movie.</p>
<p>Blaming facebook for a drop in grades is just this generations “but the dog ate my homework” excuse.</p>
<p>It isn’t FB per se, but having some distraction open on your computer when you are supposed to be doing homework. That could probably be FB, CC, or other such distractions. </p>
<p>What they do not measure is within person differences (if the same person has FB running or not while studying, does that make a difference?). It would be nice if this was set up as an experiment as opposed to a correlational study since so many other things may correlate with FB use during studying (e.g. those that don’t like school or lack motivation may be the ones with lower grades and who happen to prefer procrastination tasks while sitting at their desk).</p>
<p>I actually DO believe the availability of technology distractions during work is a huge problem in general. I see it in class too, and now I’ve banned laptops and cell phone use. Students think they are multi-tasking but really they are not- they are just selectively listening and its borne out by exam results. I personally don’t care if it impacts their grades per se (they are adults so that part is their choice), but I refuse to compete with an entertainment source and not to mention, it is just plain rude. So just like I would not appreciate someone reading a newspaper in class or talking among themselves while I’m talking, I don’t appreciate texting and facebooking in class either. Nor will their future boss. </p>
<p>But I digress…</p>
<p>I think that article is full of you know what. Anything can lower students grades. Heck, at my school,I knew two people who failed out after just one semester by falling in love with each other and having too much sex. Literally. They stopped going to half their classes, kicked out their roommates and pretty much stayed in their rooms all day and night, etc. A’s to F’s. Out the door. I would like to see a study on that, as I’m sure they weren’t the only ones who had “love” flunk them out of school. Haha.</p>
<p>I see it far more as an issue of constant accessibility. It is up to the user to block out time for work. It was taking my son forever to get stuff done. We finally realized that when he swapped out computers he didn’t copy over his itunes library. To listen to music he would go on youtube. The longest span of attention was the length of a song before he was back on youtube to put on another. Now, when I say it out loud (or you read it) it sounds pretty obvious that this is a problem, but for my little Einstein, he didn’t see a problem until I pointed it out. Texting and FB were much more of an issue during Jr year for some reason. Now it has died down. He puts his phone outside of his door so he can ignore it. </p>
<p>Technology and constant accessibility isn’t going away. The sooner they learn to set reasonable limits so they can get things done the better. As fendergirl points out, anything not in moderation can kill your grades. As a mother I’d rather hear ‘Hey mom, I have a D because I was on facebook and texting too much’, than ‘Hey mom, I have a D because I was having non-stop sex’, but that’s just me. :)</p>