Social networking doesn't hurt grades

DURHAM, N.H., Dec. 25 (UPI) -- Students who engage heavily in social networking do just as well academically as students who are less interested in keeping in touch, U.S. researcher say.

Chuck Martin, whose marketing research class at the University of New Hampshire conducted the study, says the class surveyed 1,127 university students from a range of majors.

The research shows there is no correlation between the amount of time students spend using social media and their grades. Grades followed similar distributions for all colleges, with the majority of students having As and BS, Martin says.

"The study indicates that social media are being integrated with rather than interfering with students' academic lives," Martin says in a statement. "College students have grown up with social networks, and the study shows they are now simply part of how students interact with each other with no apparent impact on grades."

Researchers defined light users of social media as usage fewer than 31 minutes per day. Heavy usage was defined as usage exceeding 61 minutes per day.

Sixty-three percent of heavy users received high grades -- As and BS -- compared to 65 percent of light users. The researchers find similar results with lower grades -- BS and lower -- while 37 percent of heavy users of social media received what were defined as lower grades. Thirty-five 35 percent of light users fell into that same category.