Effects of Using Facebook on Academic Performance of Students: A Review

Social networking sites became popular in the early-2000s and now have deep impact on the lives of their users. Facebook is the most popular social networking site today and is frequented by many high school and university students. I conducted this techno-behavioral study to understand the effects of using Facebook on the academic performance of students. I reviewed the diverse, and at times contradictory, results of 22 empirical studies carried out in 12 different countries in the last ten years. I observed that students use Facebook primarily for entertainment and communicating with people with similar interests. Using Facebook during class hours and spending too much time using Facebook negatively affect the grades of students. Nevertheless, some students also use Facebook to exchange educational resources and discuss academic issues with peers and instructors. Some instructors also improvise Facebook groups as learning management systems and use them to teach their courses. My findings will be useful to educational policy makers and social networking site developers.