Good News: The Social-Networking Site Likely Doesn’t Cause Poor Grades. Bad News: Students Achieve Them on Their OwnCollege students who have defriended Facebook after news broke of a link between the social-network site and lower grades, or younger users whose parents have made them, can rest easy. The grade numbers arise from a study that is preliminary — so much so that it cries out for further study even more than many other pilot experiments.Facebook may well distract and delay but there is far from enough numerical evidence to support that claim, notwithstanding hundreds of international headlines to the contrary.This isn’t the first time technology has been buried or praised too quickly. A 2005 test of a handful of volunteers’ ability to solve problems while their cellphones and email programs were flashing gave rise to headlines that these technologies lowered IQs more than marijuana usage. And just this month, an Australian study found that workers who use Facebook and other nonwork Web sites are more productive, but didn’t show that one caused the other.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124034974305240495.html
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