Facebook For Dummies?

Facebook is the latest scapegoat for not getting top grades in college. An Ohio State University researcher has found that students using Facebook have lower GPAs than those who don't have accounts. In essence, the researcher has proven that students who are distracted perform worse than those who aren't as focused.

See, your mother was right.

While the study of 219 students hasn't found anything that common sense didn't already dictate, it has put social networking on the hot seat, at least a little bit. In general, the research found Facebook users in the study had GPAs between 3.0 and 3.5, while non-users had GPAs between 3.5 and 4.0. The study included 102 undergraduate students and 117 graduate students. Of the participants, 148 said they had a Facebook account.

Also revealing is that Facebook users said they averaged one to five hours a week studying, while non-users studied 11 to 15 hours per week. So, does the data show that Facebook users tend to be those who seek out distraction (aka, "procrastinators") or that their grades suffer primarily because of Facebook (i.e., without social networking, their grades would go up)?

"We can't say that use of Facebook leads to lower grades and less studying—but we did find a relationship there," said Aryn Karpinski, co-author of the study, in a statement. "There may be other factors involved, such as personality traits, that link Facebook use and lower grades."

Karpinski, who is a doctoral student in education at Ohio State, noted that it's possible that even without Facebook, some students would still find other ways to avoid studying, and would still get lower grades.

Does Karpinski have a Facebook account? No. "For me, I think Facebook is a huge distraction," she said.

However, Adam Duberstein of Ohio Dominican University, Karpinski's co-author, does have an account. Go figure.