Correction: Facebook Does Not Make You Stupid

We blogged a while back about some research suggesting Facebook use was correlated with low grades. Well, one Facebook-using professor named Eszter Hargittai thought the data looked fishy. So did Josh Pasek, a graduate student who got in touch with Hargittai — through Facebook, of course — and asked if she’d like to work on a paper with him challenging the earlier findings. Their paper, written with Eian More, has just been published. Analyzing a larger sample size than the original study did, the authors found no correlation at all between Facebook use and G.P.A. In defense of her work, the original study’s author, Aryn C. Karpinski, told the Chronicle of Higher Education: “I completely acknowledge the limitations of my research. What I found is so exploratory — people need to chill out.” [%comments]