Parents can lighten up just a bit on limiting their kid's use of social media. Research from the University of New Hampshire finds that students who heavily engage in social networking do just as well academically as students who are less interested in the medium.
Defining social media as Facebook, YouTube, blogs, Twitter, MySpace and LinkedIn, the study set heavy users of social media as those exceeding 61 minutes per day, and light users as less than 31 minutes per day. Key findings include:
• 63% of heavy users received high grades (A’s or A’s and B’s), compared to 65% of light users.
• 37% of heavy users of social media received lower grades (C’s and D’s); 35% of light users received fell into that same category.
• Facebook and YouTube are the top social media platforms, with 96% using Facebook and 84% using YouTube; blogs (20%) Twitter (14%) MySpace (12%) and LinkedIn (10%) followed.
Source: University of New Hampshire