Perhaps Facebook Really Does Make People Dumber: “typically, Facebook users in the study had GPAs between 3.0 and 3.5, while non-users had GPAs between 3.5 and 4.0.”
I would question, though, what sort of similar results we might get with most technological mediums. As The Dane points out here, the viability and hurtfulness of a medium is determined only by those using it. Just like my huge biceps. I could use them for good or for evil. But if I carry out evil, no one will go around outlawing my huge biceps. (for the record I have nothing close to huge biceps)
Related Articles
-
Learning from “The Netbook Effect”
02 April 2009 7:13 AM | 2 CommentsCharles Jones shows how the church can learn from the success of small, affordable laptops.
Read More -
The Good, the Bad, and the “Wicked”
01 October 2008 8:13 AM | 1 CommentRichard Clark confronts the truth of human nature, with a little help from a popular Broadway musical.
Read More -
Kick’n Video Games, Old School
17 July 2008 12:18 PM | 1 CommentBill Reichart takes a time out from the E3's onslaught of new games to discuss a film about one of the golden oldies.
Read More -
One Phone to Rule them All
21 November 2008 9:29 AM | 13 CommentsRichard Clark eats some of his words.
Read More
Richard H. Clark (Co-Founder/Editor-in-Chief) has spent his entire life writing, reading, listening, and playing. He has a Bachelors in Theology from the Baptist College of Florida and has a Master of Arts in Theology and the Arts from the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. He is fascinated with the extent to which popular culture influences real people. He and his wife currently live in Louisville, KY where he is the classroom technology manager at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary.
Email: deadyetliving [at] gmail [dot] com. Twitter: @christandpc. Xbox Live: deadyetliving 
I would agree–completely–Facebook itself makes no one dumber–abuse of Facebook, however, aids many in their own pursuit of dumbness.
Thanks for the link–obviously I am having fun here. I like Facebook, but I do think its interesting that Facebook users had significantly lower GPAs, even among graduate students.
Drews last blog post..Perhaps Facebook Really Does Make People Dumber!
Hm. This study hearkens back to Noble Alan’s post about research studies—as its premise is inane. The study is so specific that it doesn’t really have anything to tell us about anything.
How many of those participating in the study would be considered internet users (the kind of people who follow news or blogs or whathaveyou via the internet) and is the internet-user vs. non-internet-user ratio similar to the GPA ratio cited?
What about those with robust social lives? Does the GPA study ratio correlate with a study on the GPAs of those with robust social lives vs. the GPAs of shut-ins?
Are the internet illiterate the biggest GPA winners of them all?
How do the GPA numbers stack with people who have time-consuming interests outside of study vs. people without such? Do filmlovers and social media users fall in the same category? Gamers? Athletes? People in relationships vs. people without?
As to the infantalizing of the contemporary mind that the tech-fearful keep bemoaning, Umberto Eco says this (in the first essay collected in On Literature):
The Danes last blog post..20090414.zombieBears