Students say they are failing because of Facebook

Some university students are failing papers because they are spending too much time on social networking sites.

One student who has suffered directly from social networking is Karl Noyer.

Although he is a sport and recreation student, he still manages to get onto Facebook at least 20 times a day. He believes it is the main reason that he failed some of his papers.

“If Facebook had not been around, I wouldn’t have been so distracted and would have put more effort into my work,” says Noyer.

Networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter are used as procrastination tools. Some students say they don’t even log out of the sites during the day.

The main problem is the sites’ online chat facilities, which allows the user to talk to their online friends, for as long as they want, for no cost.

“Sometimes when I am studying for an assignment, I log in and out of Facebook 10 different times a day. Sometimes I never log out,” says Eline Havard, a third-year AUT University student.

“I am online for three to four hours a day when I am supposed to be studying.”

Havard believes that although this does not seem like an important issue, it has much more significance than many would think.

“Not only do students get distracted by the sites, they can also bring down their grades. I have talked to many other students who have failed assignments because of this.

“The main reason because they spend the time they should be studying, on Facebook or other such sites,” she says.

A student doing her Masters in Psychology, Nikki Sigg, says not only do grades decline, but there are other circumstances for people always on the networking sites.

“Just like alcohol and drug addiction, people can become addicted to social networking sites, especially students and business people. Because the students are around computers all day, they can easily take over their lives,” says Sigg.

She believes a solution to the problem would be blocking the sites on university computers although this would not solve the problem completely.

“You can block the university computers, but you cannot block students’ own personal computers and that is the problem,” says Sigg.