Junco reiterates the straight forward argument, “time plus energy equals learning” (2012). Reducing academic performance to a zero-sum game between online social media use (like Facebook) and study time. The author attends to the accuracy of their topic by separating out how the technology is being used and merely just looking at the aggregate time spent on the technology which they say is lacking in other studies. The author also attends to the practical impact of their study as they break the activities on Facebook down into specific categories and then compare those specific activities to study time and GPA. This connection to GPA and study time could help influence behavior on Facebook to drive up GPA and/or study time.
The Ellison et al. reading focuses more on the social impact of Facebook. This focus on well-being speaks to the importance of the study as college can be a stressful and lonely time for many people especially when far from family and other important communal connections. The authors calculated a metric called Facebook Use Intensity which they found positively correlated with bridging social capital. This was especially true for individuals with low self-esteem and low university life satisfaction. I found this article to be more compelling as it spoke to the more important piece of university life, connections. Being able to connect to people as a means of social capital building can lead to higher feelings of well-being as shown in the article and can mean more in career aspirations than just grades alone.
Hey Matt,
I agree that Junco (2012) could improve his framing a bit by providing a more nuanced introduction to this study. This is unfortunate because I do believe that Junco makes a substantial effort to understand the intricacies of the phenomenon under study as evidenced in his methods, results, and discussion. First, Junco not only measured GPA and time spent on Facebook, but also measured what TYPE of activity students spent time with on Facebook. He then reached different conclusions regarding the relationship between different activities and their association with the outcome variables. For example, he concluded that increased time spent updating status on Facebook was associated with lower GPA and increased time spent chatting on Facebook was associated with less time spent preparing for class.
Hi Matt,
You found the Ellison article to be more compelling. Can you say a bit more about: “What technique(s) does the author use to persuade you of the importance and/or reliability and/or truthfulness and/or accuracy and/or practical impact of his or her findings?”
Your initial post talks about the importance of the study and Ellison does connect her work to larger, important issues such as student perception of well-being and life-satisfaction which have been associated with persistence in higher education. What other techniques in her writing does she use to convince you of the reliability and/or truthfulness and/or accuracy and/or practical impact of his or her findings.
I look forward to your thoughts on or offline!
Chris
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