Last month, a study was conducted by an Italian private research university, UCSC, regarding the effects on learning Twitter has on its users (particularly students) and sadly, the results weren’t what most of the people were expecting as it was concluded that Twitter has “detrimental” effect on learning.
Over 1,450 students’ academic performance across different schools in Italy was analyzed and it was revealed that out of those 1,450 students, those who used Twitter as a learning tool ended up performing shockingly poorer than those who didn’t.
The test can be conducted elsewhere as well but there’s a high chance of the exact same results coming out.
Coming back to the conducted test, it was found out that learning through Twitter caused a decline in students’ performance of up to 40% of a standard deviation. Moreover, the effects were more damaging for smarter students.
The study, which was conducted by Catholic University of the Sacred Heart’s researchers in Italy, acknowledged the fact that social media is beneficial in terms of encouraging users to have their voices heard. However, using it for academic and learning works might not be a good idea as it can reduce users’ attention span and they might quickly skim through the material without properly understanding it.
An average Social Media user might know how casually surfing the feed makes them realize in the end about their attention span fading.
The researchers made it clear that the study’s results were not a clear indication towards Twitter being a bad learning tool. The results cannot be generalized for the entire Internet community.
However, one of Catholic University of the Sacred Heart’s Professor Gian Paolo Barbetta expressed to the media outlets about the recent changes in performance and behavior to be “quite detrimental”.
Do you agree with the study’s results or do you have a different opinion regarding Twitter’s impact on learning? Sound off in the comments section.
Read next: Understanding Twitter's Timeline Algorithm To Make Your Brand Stand Out In 2019 [infographic]
Over 1,450 students’ academic performance across different schools in Italy was analyzed and it was revealed that out of those 1,450 students, those who used Twitter as a learning tool ended up performing shockingly poorer than those who didn’t.
The test can be conducted elsewhere as well but there’s a high chance of the exact same results coming out.
Coming back to the conducted test, it was found out that learning through Twitter caused a decline in students’ performance of up to 40% of a standard deviation. Moreover, the effects were more damaging for smarter students.
The study, which was conducted by Catholic University of the Sacred Heart’s researchers in Italy, acknowledged the fact that social media is beneficial in terms of encouraging users to have their voices heard. However, using it for academic and learning works might not be a good idea as it can reduce users’ attention span and they might quickly skim through the material without properly understanding it.
An average Social Media user might know how casually surfing the feed makes them realize in the end about their attention span fading.
The researchers made it clear that the study’s results were not a clear indication towards Twitter being a bad learning tool. The results cannot be generalized for the entire Internet community.
However, one of Catholic University of the Sacred Heart’s Professor Gian Paolo Barbetta expressed to the media outlets about the recent changes in performance and behavior to be “quite detrimental”.
Do you agree with the study’s results or do you have a different opinion regarding Twitter’s impact on learning? Sound off in the comments section.
Read next: Understanding Twitter's Timeline Algorithm To Make Your Brand Stand Out In 2019 [infographic]
