Facebook Does Not Makes us Dumber - Research Paper Example

Facebook Does Not Makes us Dumber The current communication tools among teenagers have peculiar s including status updates, wall posts, thumbs up and activity feeds among many others. These tools represent the features of social networking sites such as MySpace, Twitter and Facebook. These are part of Web application suites that utilize the principles of Web 2.0 and referred to as social media. In their study on effects of Facebook on academic performance, Ohio Dominican University researchers Karpinski and Duberstein found out in 2009 that out of the 219 students studied, the 148 using Facebook scored a grade point lower with their weekly period of study ranging between 1 and 5 hours as compared to 11 to 15 hours by the non-users of Facebook (23). This paper looks at the arguments by these researchers, analysing the implications of networking sites on learning and compares them to counterarguments by various researchers. Indeed, Facebook does not make us dumb but rather imparts important learning skills that prevent dumbness among its users. Introduction The evaluation of the effects of social media on learning which determine dumbness in an individual has been cited by Ahn (1436) as a complex undertaking. According to this researcher, the media effects paradigm provides appropriate explanation to the dynamics involved in influencing learning. This postulates that any media or technological form would have causal relationship on some outcome, though it remains elusive to conclude on a direct causal relationship existing between technology and social outcome like learning. But the media effect paradigm has helped researchers conclude that a media tool in itself would not influence learning but rather, the learning behaviours associated with the software used or the educational program (Ractham, Kaewkitipong and Firpo 173). According to Ahn (1437), it is the features of a technology and not a technology in itself that that constrains or propagates the usage of the tool. Furthermore, behavioural practices and cultural norms influence one’s usage of technology. This offers insights in studies seeking to determine the effects of social media. This social informatics perspective implies that the social platform media would not cause outcomes like learning; the cultural and communication behaviours exhibited by its users would. Therefore, it would be important to consider the user populations involved in these social communities, the features of the social media sites and behaviours that could be likely associated with the social outcomes (Rouis, Limayem and Salehi-Sangari 969). Adolescents have been cited as major users of social network sites with Ahn (1435) noting an increase in their usage from 55% to 73% in 2009 within three years. But with over 350 million users globally and growing, of which 50% are active, Facebook is made up of a varied range of user profiles including high school, students to Master’s degree graduates and doctorate degree holders to corporate organisations (Ractham, Kaewkitipong and Firpo 166). According to Karpinski and Duberstein (13), this most popular social media site has elicited a lot of concern due to its popularity globally with consumers spending over 8 million per day on the website. The application consumes considerable website activity with 2.5 billion photos and 14 million videos being uploaded monthly and over 3.5 billion shares per week. Therefore, Facebook would be popularly considered to be a time-consuming activity which definitely impacts on learning among its users. Advantage of social networking websites on learning There have been arguments on social media providing platforms for its users to learn through new approaches (Ahn 1453). The researcher notes that the youth need to be literate in various aspects of the social media environment with performance being defined in terms of the ability for adoption of varied identities for discovery purposes. Perhaps, social networking sites could be critical in exploration of different perspectives, voices and characters in the learning process. The environments represented by these social media sites provide the appropriation skills to the youth that helps them in collecting, synthesising and remixing content. According to Rouis, Limayem and Salehi-Sangari (980), it also gives networking skills which comes in handy in searching, integrating and disseminating information. There are studies indicating that social networking provides its users with the opportunity to explore interest-driven activities and communities which help them learn and offer practical skills in a particular knowledge area. It is claimed by Black that sites such as Facebook provide students with social support for their daily stresses and school related tasks through sharing and receiving encouraging feedback from friends. Moreover, participation in social networking increases social connectedness with the peers, which has been linked to increased connectedness with academics and school. In fact, Ahn (1443) notes that this aspect minimises school dropout rates. Finally, critics of the postulate by Karpinski and Duberstein (26) that social media sites like Facebook causes students to spend more time on social media than in their studies thus lowering their GPA observe that these sites provide a new medium for extracurricular activities which are crucial in learning (Ahn 1443). These social networking sites provide the platform for leisure activities but do not deny the youth the time to study. As a form of value addition, while these students post their goals on their wall posts, the peers could be motivated to achieve even more academically. This has been explained using the goal and the expectancy theories which postulate that one’s peers would communicate the goals and behaviours considered to be of value which would cause the friends to strive for high attainment (Hurl et al. 18). Disadvantages of social networking websites on learning In spite of the discussed benefits of social media, Ahn (1435) observes that majority of school districts choose to block the access to these sites with parents continuously expressing their fears on the safety and impact that social media has on their children. In the midst of the debate on whether social media engagement wastes study time for students, Hurt et al. (7) argue that students having their accounts continuously logged onto these social media accounts with constant messaging and posting unimportant status interferes with their concentration on academics. It is such behaviours that got Karpinski and Duberstein (26) conclude that Facebook users scored GPAs ranging between 3.0 and 3.5 as compared to the non-users scoring between 3.5 and 4.0. If more time was spent in studying, probably these lowly graded students could exhibit better results. Valenzuela, Park and Kee (882) introduce the psychological aspect in the argument against social media improving learning. The researcher cites the studies by University of Southern California neurologists who observed that these media could confuse the moral compass of the users. Psychological suffering calls for persistence and emotional attention. With the fastness of events on social media such as Facebook, it becomes difficult to wholly experience the psychological states of other persons through their emotions which impacts on the user’s morality. This makes the users of these media numb to people’s pain and feelings. The resultant facile and indifference tendencies impede learning. Conclusion In spite of studies by Karpinski and Duberstein that argue on social network sites being a cause for lower grades among students, various scholars have come out and cited limitations of the study including use of a limited sample of students, use of few control variables for analysis and its liberal conclusion. In as much as it argues on social media sites such as Facebook consuming a lot of time that a student user would be using in studies, it has been indicated that the time spent in these sites are those that would have otherwise been spent in extracurricular activities. In fact, social networking provides additional value in that through socialising, the user could positively learn from other users’ status updates and messages. Social networking provides its users the opportunity to pursue the area of knowledge that interests them and in addition imparts performance, networking and appropriation skills deemed as significant skills in learning. Therefore, social networking websites do not make us dumber but instead develop critical learning skills among its users. Works Cited Ahn, June Social and Academic Development: Current Theories and Controversies. Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology 62.8 (2011): 1435 – 1445. Black, Rosemary. “Does Facebook make you dumber? Study shows users of social networking site get lower grades.” Daily News 15 Apr. 2009. Web. 29 November 2012. http://articles.nydailynews.com Hurt, N. E. et al. “The ‘Facebook’ Effect: College Students’ Perceptions of Online Discussions in the Age of Social Networking.” International Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning 6.2 (2012): 1 – 24. Karpinski, A. C., and Duberstein, A. Facebook and Academic Performance. The Ohio Dominican University. Web. 29 November 2012. http://lnx-hrl-075v.web.pwo.ou.nl Ractham, P., Kaewkitipong, L., and Firpo, D. “The Use of Facebook in an Introductory MIS Course: Social Constructivist Learning Environment.” Decision Sciences Journal of Innovative Education 10.2 (2012): 165 – 188. Rouis, S., Limayem, M., and Salehi-Sangari, E. “Impact of Facebook Usage on Students’ Academic Achievement: Roles of Self-Regulation and Trust.” Electronic Journal of Research in Educational Psychology 9.3 (2011): 961 – 994. Valenzuela, S., Park, N., and Kee, K. F. “Is There Social Capital in a Social Network Site?: Facebook Use and College Students’ Life Satisfaction, Trust, and Participation.” Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication 14 (2009): 875 – 901. Read More