US: Facebook students underachieve in exams

An American study has found that students who spend their time adding friends, chatting and 'poking' others on the website may devote as little as one hour a week to their academic work, writes Urmee Khan in The Telegraph. The study by Ohio State University showed that students who used Facebook had a "significantly" lower grade point average than those who did not.

The study questioned 219 undergraduates and graduates about their study practices and general internet use, as well as their specific use of Facebook. They found that 65% of Facebook users accessed their account daily, usually checking it several times to see if they had received new messages. The amount of time spent on Facebook at each login varied from just a few minutes to more than an hour.

Aryn Karpinski, a researcher in the education department at Ohio State University said people who spend more time on Facebook spend less time studying. "It is the equivalent of the difference between getting an A and a B, added Karpynski, who presented her findings last week to the annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association
Full report on The Telegraph site