High School Hustle: Facebook: Minor annoyance or homework hindrance?
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A typical conversation between concerned parents and their high school students might, theoretically, begin with a casual inquiry about homework. A most unwelcome question about what plans are being made to get it done might come next.
Often, the child, typing furiously in front of a computer, might note that there is barely any homework, or that he or she is about to start.
“Get off Facebook,” the concerned parent might venture. “Do your homework first.”
“Okay, fine,” comes the reply. “I’m just saying Bye.”
Ten minutes passes. The furious typing continues. The backpack remains unopened.
“I thought you were getting off Facebook to start the homework?”
“I am! I’m just saying ‘Bye!”
“Why does that take so long?”
“Because there is more than one person on – everyone is on!”
It turns out, there might be as many as 100 or even more Facebook friends on at once, posting links and invitations to join causes along with photos and videos. They may be simply chatting online about their daunting adjustment, or search for a New York City high school. At the same time, many are texting, reading, and possibly even doing homework.
While multiple conversations are certainly a more efficient way of catching up then say, making nearly 100 phone calls, I can’t help being annoyed by the constant distraction, which might include other ways of wasting time like AddictingGames, also known as “Please, just let me just finish this one game, I’m about to win!”
Am I alone in thinking the time would be better spent doing homework or reading? Especially when the offerings are rich: my 9th-grade son is reading the literature of Sophocles, Bernard Malamud, and Henry James. Why is it more interesting to know whose status has changed from single to “It’s complicated?”
There are some teachers who use Facebook to post assignments and even wish students good luck on exams. Others have assigned their students to Facebook groups to discuss books and assignments. But I can’t believe they aren’t concerned about the time Facebook takes up.
I know this is can be an issue for college students: A small, pilot study at Ohio Dominican University released at the American Education Researchers Association convention in San Diego last spring found that college students who use Facebook spend less time studying and had lower grade point averages than students who are not on social networking websites.
I asked Dr. Susan Lowes, the director of Evaluation and Research at the Institute for Learning Technologies at Teachers College, Columbia University, what she thinks about the time students are spending on Facebook.
Lowes isn’t aware of any new studies that link academic performance in high school to time spent on social networking sites, in part because the technology is so new. She did note that she would caution parents who think Facebook is useless.
“I don’t necessarily think it’s any different than any other way of spending down time,” Lowes said. “In some ways, it may be more productive because at least they are communicating….there may be less social ways to waste time, and the socialization could be good for kids. Facebook is just one more way for them to engage with one another.”
That is an argument my 9th-grade son likes to use. And Lowes shared something that gave me some comfort: Teenagers may become very involved with Facebook at first and later back off because it takes so much time.
It could be that the novelty wears off. While I use Facebook for professional reasons and have also enjoyed the fun of connecting with old friends, I’m mostly ambivalent. Postings that describe meals, reactions to sitcoms, and difficulty sleeping seem especially banal when they come from people I haven’t had an actual face-to-face or even telephone conversation with in years.
It’s possible that I might have been just as thrilled to have the opportunity to video chat and instantly connect with my friends electronically if Facebook and similar technology existed when I was in high school instead of fighting with my siblings about whose turn it was to get off the telephone.
I’m glad I didn’t, though. One study I found out of Stony Brook University, in fact, suggested that too much time social networking leaves teenage girls more prone to anxiety and depression. And developing study skills early on in high school is key.
I’m curious how other parents and educators feel about Facebook. I’ve set some rules: Facebook and the computer stay in the living room, not the bedroom. And I won’t let my 7th-grader have one till he turns 13, at the end of the school year.
Many of his middle school friends, it seems, are already on. Some got Facebook pages in elementary school. So what is the right age for kids to have one, and how much time should be allotted for it? When is it too much? Any thoughts on how it interferes with homework?
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Many years ago, my husband told me about a friend who came back from Japan and reported something bizarre. “The kids stand around with their phones, RIGHT NEXT TO EACH OTHER, and write little messages to each other.” I needed him to explain it twice, it sounded so patently absurd.
Fast forward to now, with this multigenerational communication explosion. I’m an admitted Facebook addict myself, so I have tons of sympathy for kids who don’t have the adult self-discipline of jobs and bills to pay. It’s such an irresistible combo of nonstop information and goofy fun I don’t know how any of them sleep, let alone do homework. Unless Facebook starts turning itself off late at night, with nothing to watch but a U.S. flag waving limply like it did on TV when we were kids :), there’s no way to put the genie back in the bottle. They’ll hopefully just outgrow it, when greater responsibility kicks in, as it always does! Meanwhile, as their parent and fellow internet addict, I try to strike a balance between nagging and understanding. Getting hw out of the way first is the smartest rule to try to enforce. But I also think whole families might try allotting a couple of hours every evening as non-internet time for everyone.
Comment by Sarah Durkee — October 20, 2009 @ 4:29 pm
Hey Liz~! Very well researched and written ~
I agree with Sarah’s post above. It’s invaluable to strike a balance between time spent online and time (perhaps designated if necessary)spent with family. That all-too-precious family time is becoming less and less, so it’s only with an active rule of some sort that we can begin to rein things in a bit, ie: Facebook. Terence just turned 17, so I’ve loosened things up a bit. As long as he hits the honor roll, that tells me he is doing his homework and balancing his time spent on the computer. I pay close attention to his progress reports, and if he hasn’t earned the time, than it shows me he is not responsible enough to juggle between the two. For now, he’s been excelling in school and already getting a bit bored with the whole social networking scene, so yes, according to one of your sources, over time the kids do place less importance on the computer scene. I agree with you on a number of points, in particular I can’t say enough about keeping the computer in the living room!
Once again, well done Liz.
Sincerely,
Kathleen
Comment by Kathleen Patane — October 20, 2009 @ 4:53 pm
Nice piece, Liz. Wondered if you have been sitting in our living room as you perfectly described the excrutiating long Facebook sign-off. Seems there are usually 3-4 direct chats going on too. And each needs a good-bye, acknowledgement of the good-bye, etc. Definitely keeping the computer in the living room and working to see that homework is done before FB - altho with teachers posting on the school website and computer research for homework, it can be challenging to know what is open when. Pushing for a 9pm computer off - hard to keep to that as we get busy with this or that and it doesn’t go off without insisting on our side. Can’t tell yet how it is affecting studies - she definitely has more homework and at a much more challenging level so I am concerned about the distraction. Always helpful to hear what others are doing with their kids. Like others I am hoping for less interest as time goes by. Seems large number of adults join FB but then withdraw when they how it eats time - and the banality of many posts.
Comment by Jean Laupus — October 21, 2009 @ 11:09 am
Well done, cousin. Here’s the rule in our house, homework first. And homework in our schools is not relayed through website. I haven’t had to time-limit or yell (at least about this)…yet.
Re the sign-off, a general ‘gtg’ (got to go) to all is sufficient. Leave the individual goodbyes for one on one. Here’s the other corny thing. We have dinner together. Even if its as short as 20 minutes, we are generally away from phones, bb’s, games, work, tv’s. We eat, complain, laugh and argue in a traditional way…face to face.
Shari
Comment by shari dalconzo — October 22, 2009 @ 5:06 pm