Are you connected or distracted? Facebook pros and cons
Posted by The Skyliner on February 18th, 2009Jessicah Peters
Staff Writer
Ever been trying to study or do homework then be distracted by the curiosity of who is on Facebook?
Facebook is growing more popular everyday in the lives of college students not only around the United States but also around the world. So what is it that makes Facebook so captivating, and distractible?
If you walk in the library, which is a typical place of study, you will most likely see students checking up on their Facebook instead of checking up on what homework they have to finish. Trying to multi-task is usually the excuse of students.
We, as students, are already distracted, because we must have the music playing, while watching our favorite television show, and then we have to check our Facebook religiously as well.
Facebook was started by Mark Zukerburg, a Harvard student, and was originally only a website for Harvard students. Now Facebook has expanded its membership to any university or college student, high school students and now any person above the age of 13.
At North Greenville University, and I am sure many other universities, many students use Facebook to communicate with their professors about assignments, or due dates for papers. Most professors even encourage their students to add them on Facebook, because the use of email nowadays is becoming more rare.
Facebook is rather helpful for finding people you have not talked to in a while, and I even know of a friend whose first grade teacher found her on Facebook, and now catch up on what has happened over the years.
“Normally, I get on at night, so I spend about 3 to 4 hours on Facebook just talking to friends,” Austin Barrett said when questioned on how much time he spends on Facebook.
“I really enjoy Facebook because it gives me an opportunity to keep in touch with people from high school that I graduated with and are off at separate colleges. Its a fun way to share with all your friends what has been going on in your life. I probably log onto Facebook, honestly, seven or eight times a day to just check notifications real quick,” Anna Goff said.
Students have the easy access to Facebook with the use of their cell phone and can update their status at any moment, which is another great advantage for those who must inform their friends of exactly what they are doing at all times.
Statistics show there are over 150 million active users, and the average people joining are outside of college, with the age of 30 or above, and that more than 15 million users update their status more than once a day.
So what is the average time students spend on Facebook? The growing calculation of user engagement resulted in more than 3 billion minutes are spent on Facebook each day worldwide.
Maybe as students, we should stop worrying about who just broke up with whom and spend a little more time studying for the midterms coming up. However, if you can actually multi-task, studying and being on Facebook and receiving good grades, please tell the secret to us that are less fortunate and cannot.