Effect of Social Media on a Students GPA

5 min readDec 4, 2018

As technology becomes ever more common in our daily lives, we have started to observe the effects it may have caused in the classroom. For decades we didn’t have to worry about technology changing our classrooms. As technology continues to improve we are able to use devices in our classrooms to take notes, solve mathematical equations, and even to give lectures. The rising question however is, how does social media effect a student’s GPA?

It is hard to make an easy correlation between the 2 variables. There are many ways that social media latches onto different people, and how much individuals use these sources of entertainment. When I look at this topic, I am predicting a negative correlation to social media and the user’s GPA. With the increase in laptops, cellphones, and tablets that are allowed in classrooms, students are more prone to open a social media source, or get a notification during a lecture. This causes students to miss vital information, or miss notes for tests later in the semester. Missing notes and lecture information will cause students to preform poorly on tests.

To observe a correlation, we need to look at previous studies on our topic. Megan Landry discusses an experiment in her article that line up perfectly with this topic, and was taken by Stollack et al. This study composed of 430 students, and after a survey confirmed that 97% used social media on at least one site. This study showed a downward trend of GPA to amount of social media usage. This study was conducted in 2013, and is one of the more recent study’s on this topic.

Megan also refers to a study that was taken in 2011 by Walsh et al. This study is more of a female orientated survey, but holds the same correlation as the previous study. Of the 483 females, all were freshman in college. This is important, as most college age students develop more advanced study techniques in their sophomore year. The study portrayed a similar negative correlation as the first study.

The first study’s only really focus on the social media use in class, rather than outside of class. This causes variables to be ignored, such as time spent procrastinating homework instead of working. Students spending less time on a homework assignment tend to get lower scores on the assignment than a student that put more time in. The following study however includes this data, and was taken by Jacobsen and Forste. Megan, in her article, refers to a study that was taken in 2011, and was logged for 3 days. This study was over multiple areas, such as, how students preform in class(GPA) and how well students are after college. The results were similar as the previous studies conducted, but states that “ every hour of electronic media exposure reported by students on average, GPA was reduced between 0.05 and 0.07 points”.

One of the most informative studies available was taken in 2018 by these five people, Giunchiglia, Zeni, Gobbi, Bignotti, & Bison. This study used an app that was downloaded by the participants. This app tracked overall screen time, apps used, and other parameters on the phone, over a 2 weeks period. With 72 students participating in the experiment it is over a rather small range of individuals, but has enough variety to cover many demographics. The students did not have to provide their GPA, as the University of Trento in Italy provided them. This is important, because in the previous studies a student had to report his or her GPA. This can sway results, as some people would be embarrassed, and change the value. After gathering all of the data, it was shown that social media does in fact have a negative impact of a students GPA. It was determined that the distraction that social media is what causes a drop in a students GPA.

These studies show a significant drop in GPA for students that spend a significant amount of time on social media. This is due to the overall distraction that it poses in our lives. Social media is like a drug. In most settings it is hard to escape, readily available, and entertaining for hours on end. This makes it easy for someone to avoid the reality of homework, test, and other obligations, for a simpler form of entertainment.

We can make a negative correlation between social media and GPA. All studies conclude with a similarly negative correlation, caused by the distraction of an easy escape from responsibility. It is hard to escape the attractive force of social media, but there are ways to prevent it. Designate a time everyday to studying, even if you don’t have any homework, just review the material you went over the day before. When it reaches that time of day, turn your phone off and put it in a drawer. Out of site, our of mind. This tactic can also help you control your time better, and be more responsible. If you can’t control yourself, then give your phone to a friend or a roommate. Tell them when your study time is up, and they will give it back then. Yes we can draw a negative correlation to GPA and social media, but we can also do things to prevent it.

Sources:

Davis, R. (2015, September 23). Social media use may lead to poor grades. Retrieved from http://www.browndailyherald.com/2013/04/24/social-media-use-may-lead-to-poor-grades/

Ehmke, R. (2018, October 23). How Using Social Media Affects Teenagers. Retrieved from https://childmind.org/article/how-using-social-media-affects-teenagers/

Landry, Megan. “The Effects of Social Media: Is It Hurting.” Cola.unh.edu, cola.unh.edu/sites/cola.unh.edu/files/student-journals/The_Effects_of_Social_Media_Is_it_Hurting_College_Students.pdf.

PSYCH 424 blog. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://sites.psu.edu/aspsy/2018/04/24/social-media-and-gpa/

The associations between social-media use and academic performance among undergraduate students in biology. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00219266.2017.1307246

Walton, A. G. (2017, October 03). 6 Ways Social Media Affects Our Mental Health. Retrieved from https://www.forbes.com/sites/alicegwalton/2017/06/30/a-run-down-of-social-medias-effects-on-our-mental-health/#7abf7a312e5a

The role of social media in higher education classes (real and virtual) — A literature review. (2013, January 26). Retrieved from https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0747563212003743

The Wired Generation: Academic and Social Outcomes of Electronic Media Use Among University Students. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.liebertpub.com/doi/abs/10.1089/cyber.2010.0135

Written by Joshua Chiodini