Is Facebook The Enemy of Education?

Monday, July 27th 2009 by Joe CorbettcloseAuthor: Joe Corbett Name: Joseph Corbett
Email: joe@istrategylabs.com
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About: Joe is the COO of iStrategyLabs, and his focus is on creating perfect digital/physical execution for clients and the lab itself. Being charged with keeping the lab operating efficiently 24/7 demands that Joe knows how to solve problems in 100 different ways, but he prides himself on finding the elegant solution that most satisfies each job. He has been deeply immersed in the web since the age of 10, and started his first tech business at age 16. Joe’s true passion is studying human behavior and technology’s influence on it. You can tweet him @joecorbettSee Authors Posts (53)

While researching Facebook applications for education, I came across a post entitled, “Study says Facebook can impact studies.” The following quote was very concerning because it was both shortsighted and backed with very little data:

“Our study shows people who spend more time on Facebook spend less time studying,” Karpinski said. “Every generation has its distractions, but I think Facebook is a unique phenomenon. It is the equivalent of the difference between getting an A and a B.”

Aryn Karpinski, the researcher responsible for this study also said, “We can’t say that the use of Facebook leads to lower grades and less studying—but we did find a relationship there.” So then what does this study prove? In my opinion, it proves that students looking for a distraction from their studies will frequently choose Facebook. In order for this study to have any kind of credibility, it would have needed to account for the students’ study habits pre-Facebook. I’m sure the result would have been exactly the same in terms of which students had lower GPA’s.

Students don’t need Facebook to ignore their studies; they have plenty of other places to choose from such as YouTube.com, The Onion.com, freearcade.com, and countless other digital time wasters available on their laptops and smartphones. So, why then has Facebook been singled out? One reason is that it’s popularity has been explosive, especially over the last 12 months, which has turned the heads of statisticians and researchers seeking to find out what is causing this phenomenon. Let’s also not forget that the media would prefer to report on Facebook crushing students GPA’s instead of how it provides a place for many good causes, like Educate Girls in Africa or Stop Budget Cuts to California Education.

My opinion is this: Facebook is not the enemy of education, it’s a solution to utter boredom. When students are being engaged in a unique and interesting manner in school, they will put Facebook, Youtube, or other distractions away, so they can pay attention to their lessons. I’d like to know your opinion about Facebook and its applications in education. Please take the poll below, and then leave a comment explaining why you voted the way you did.

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