Students and Their Social Networking Habits

In just one year, Inside Higher Ed reports that the questions educators are asking about social networking sites (SNSs) have changed. Instead of wondering what to do about their students' technology habits, today, educators are pondering whether to adopt students' existing technology habits. Researchers from Arizona State University conducted a study to address this issue, and presented their findings at this year's EDUCAUSE Conference.

The study, led by Dr. Laura Brewer, involved an online survey of 3,000 first-year students living on campus (21% response rate). The questions were designed to assess how the respondents used Facebook to create their identities (academic and social). In addition, the researchers wanted to assess how this form of identity creation might affect student retention rates.

Some research has shown that web-based tools can improve retention; however, according to Brewer, it is unclear how students' technology habits relate to the teaching and learning process. Nonetheless, SNSs were popular with the respondents - a little more than 93% use Facebook and almost 89% are active users. In terms of academic-related use, slightly more than 68% joined Facebook for their dorm; only 37.4% said that Facebook enriches their academic life, which means that approximately 70% said it did not. Very few of the students are using Facebook to connect to the faculty. Instead, they are using this SNS to stay connected to classmates or work in groups. On a more negative note, some respondents stated that Facebook could be a distraction and encourage cheating.

The findings of this report appear to be aligned with the latest ECAR study on undergrads and technology in that SNS are popular among young people for personal use. However, these same individuals may not want to incorporate SNS into their academic lives.