How Facebook is destroying your grades and the one
thing that can save it
Study secrets for stopping facebook addiction
While writing the virtual teaching assistant method I ran across quite a few students who had a real problem with facebook, myspace and twitter. A new study has found that students who use facebook get lower marks then those who don’t.
When I performed a time audits on students for the book, I found that they would check networking sites multiple times a day with some students literally spending HOURS electronically ‘socializing’ with their virtual friends.
A recent study found that facebook users had GPAs between 3.0 and 3.5 whereas non-users had GPAs between 3.5 and 4.0. Also non facebook users devoted 11-15 hours weekly to study whereas facebook users spend one to five.
There is an obvious correlation between facebook and academic success. The safe bet would be to delete your networking sites to preserve your mark. However, there is another important factor that you have to take into consideration. People who don’t use facebook are unpopular and usually dorks.
I have a few non-user friends that don’t fall under this category but overall, people who don’t have facebook are less social. About half of all my invitations to social events now come through facebook. It’s obvious that using facebook is a great way to mechanize socializing which should be any good student’s goal that wants to maximize their fun in the shortest amount of time (see the book for more info on this). So the problem then becomes how can you enjoy your facebook time and also hold a 4.0 GPA?
Facebook addiction is a small part of a larger problem for many students as they lack the self discipline to shut off outside distractions and get to what’s important ‘getting A’s’, instead of screwing around. Now you’re probably thinking that I’m not a proponent of wasting time. Well if you had read my book you’d know I LOVE wasting time, I waste tones of time but I waste it in a good way not a bad way.
In terms of social networking sites I restrict myself to 5 minutes during working hours. This gives me enough time to check out if anybody has emailed me or invited me to something that I might want to go to. I keep myself accountable to the 5 minutes a day using leechblock, a free add on in my browser that I can set to restrict my facebook use. This program will make you human again by forcing you off the computer and into the real world. I highly recommend you give.
After the day is done, I can use facebook as much as I want. By that time all my work is finished and I can enjoy socializing with my digital friends guilt free. I also expand leechblock into other aspects of my surfing life as well. Restricting time on email and even banning myself from websites that aren’t important to my academic success (example: cnn.com youtube.com gizmodo.com etc). I’ve banned all these websites either completely or just during the weekdays. I was a hard adjustment but now I have hours more to do interesting things each day. Remember 5 minutes here and there add up. So don’t keep yourself accountable, make programs like leechblock accountable for you.
Do you think the study (which you can find here) is valid or bullshit? Can you control your facebooking or are you out of control? Have you come up with a different strategy to manage your internet addictions? Leave comments.
Let me explain with an average day in the life of moi.
10:00 am: Get up, eat a breakfast of half a dozen egg whites and some spinach.
10:15 am: Get washed and brushed.
10:45 am: Work out for about an hour.
11:45 am: Turn on computer and go fix myself a post workout meal.
12:00 pm: Check my email and facebook using leechblock which restricts my email to 20 minutes and my facebook to 5 minutes.
12:30 pm: Do some writing and putz around.
3:30 pm: Finish all my writing for the day. Leechblock does not allow me to open up my email, facebook or twitter till 4:00 pm so I apply myself to other things such as cleaning up my apartment or sometimes I go out for a drink at my favorite coffee shop.
4:30 pm: Finish off my day with checking email and CLOSING MY LAPTOP! When the working day is done, I don’t keep my laptop open. If I need the internet to check movie times for instance I use my ipod touch.
5:30 pm: Another mini meal full of protein and good carbs
5:30 pm: Various versions of having fun, such as movie Tuesday, rock climbing Wednesdays or dinner out with friends.
10:00 pm: Some television or a movie, the rules being I either specifically know what show I want to watch or I can’t have seen the movie before.
12-1:00 pm: Sleep, grab one last mini meal for the day and hit the sack.
If you have any questions, please comment.
Liam McIvor Martin
{ 1 comment… read it below or add one }
I love this app!! Thanks for putting this out there Liam. As for the superman diet, meh.