( InternetAddiction)
The internet is a big part of our
academic life. It’s almost impossible to imagine being a college student and
not using the internet. Students use the internet for research, online course
work, and faculty communication.
Research shows that time spent on
the internet negatively predicts the GPA(Junco). That being said we can’t solely
blame the academic use of internet on poor academic performance. After all we use
the internet in our academic life to improve our learning and not to harm it. Let’s
be honest you probably don’t know anybody that just can’t leave the Moodle page
or is completely submerged in researching an academic topic. We all have our kryptonite,
some of us are constantly on Facebook some are on YouTube and others can’t stop
online shopping.
For the longest time I thought that
by not being part of any social sites I was shielded from wasting time online
and having my grades impacted by that. I could not have been more wrong. While I
was researching our presentation topic “internet addiction” and how it impacts
academic performance I decided to do a personal analysis of internet use and
its impact on my academic performance. Although my GPA has not changed I used
the final grade as the dependent variable and interestingly enough I found that
in 2009 I had 6 subscriptions was watching on average 20 hour a day and my
average final grade was a 96.3. Fast-forward to present I have 69 subscriptions
I watch on average 90 minutes of YouTube a day and my last semester’s average
final grade was a 92.1. Most shocking to
me is the fact that besides one semester my average final grade has been declining
and my YouTube use has been constantly increasing. I do understand that there
are many other factors that could contribute to my academic decline, like the
fact that higher level classes are harder, but the point of this analysis was
not to discover something I did not know about myself but to quantify the
amount of time I spend on YouTube and the result are worrying.
My
question to you is on what do you spend most of your internet time, and do you
think it has any impact on your academic performance?
-Oleg Frunza
Works Cited
InternetAddiction.
Digital image. Http://my.englishclub.com/forum/topics/does-internet-affect-our-lives.
EnglishClub, 12 Oct. 2012. Web. 11 Mar. 2013.
<http://my.englishclub.com/forum/topics/does-internet-affect-our-liveshttp://my.englishclub.com/forum/topics/does-internet-affect-our-lives>.
Junco, Reynol.
"Too Much Face and Not Enough Books: The Relationship between Multiple
Indices of Facebook Use and Academic Performance." Computers in Human
Behavior 28.1 (2011): 187-98. Print.
I agree,I waste way too much time when I am studying or doing homework by watching YouTube.My study time is much more efficient when reading textbooks than doing internet based homework, but that's not always an option.If we didn't have to use the internet so frequently for school, do you believe that we would find ourselves spending as much time on YouTube or other distracting sites?
ReplyDeleteIn my research I have found no evidence that academic use of internet increases our recreational use of internet. Mainly because by the time we get to college we have already been exposed to the internet and have our preferences. But you do have a point because, you are already on the web doing homework it’s much easier to log on to YouTube. Contrary if you are reading a book you would probably have to turn the PC on wait for it to boot and then log in your YouTube account which is a much longer process and in some ways a deterrent form using distracting sites during your study time.
DeleteI think that in today's world we are all addicted to the internet in a certain way. Without it most of us would feel hopeless. I know personally without internet i would not know what to do, because we rely so much on it.
ReplyDeleteI can say personally that I spend entirely too much time on the internet doing things that I should not be doing while studying. When ever I use my computer to study for a test, for example am looking at PowerPoint slides to study, i constantly find myself switching between Facebook and Twitter while studying. After about 5 slides, or 10 minutes of studying I always "reward" myself by checking one of the two sites. This is ridiculous, I know, but studying becomes too boring for me and I cannot stay emerged in it. I do believe that this has an impact on my academic performance and am currently considering other studying options that do not involve a computer.
ReplyDeleteAcademic performance is clearly an appropriate indicator of how internet affect lives in general. From a broader view, many are suffering the consequences of obsession with the online world, unable to control their use. From gaming to sexual and emotional relationships, the internet is taking over lives. More and more people will be confronted with consequences such as divorce and physical symptoms which will force them to seek both medical and psychological treatment.
ReplyDeleteUyen Pham
Being a senior in college, I have major seniorits. Because of that when it comes to studying I often find myself wandering off either on my phone or the internet online shopping or whatever I feel like doing. The internet seems so much more appealing than studying for the last few tests or writing those last few papers. I also don't really feel that my internet use has gotten in the way of my schoolwork, I always get my work done and complete by the day that its due. On the other hand I see many of my friends who use the internet and their grades are affected by their usage. I think it really just comes down to the individual person using the internet.
ReplyDeleteIn my personal opinion, surfing the internet doesn't affect the academic performance in bad way, it actually helped to develop our way of emphasizing our information sources. Many subjects require the students to engage in online research in order to widen their learning. Not only is the internet an online encyclopaedia, it is also a fast way of communication between students and their professors.
ReplyDeleteIn my personal experience I would say that internet has improved my grades. By being on the road and away from home most of the time I would say that without the internet I wouldn't be able to do it. One think I do is that whenever I am doing something in the internet whether is a school project or purchasing an item I make sure I do that first before I spent time doing something else on the internet.
ReplyDeleteI am not surprised that research shows that time spent on the internet negatively predicts the GPA. Internet is very useful tool, it helps students in studying, doing research and learning about new things. Use of internet is so much more convenient in finding information about some topic than using books. Despite the fact that internet is so helpful, internet is also a bid distraction. Many student instead of doing their work, look up thing in internet and spent their time on not useful stuff. That is why wrong use of internet can negatively influence on student's GPA.
ReplyDelete