As far as blackouts go, there wasn’t much damage, but it’s hard to forget the great social media blackout at Harrisburg University of Science and Technology that received a plethora of national attention in September.
On Friday, HU released results of surveys taken in conjunction with the blackout from Sept. 13-17, when the school blocked students and faculty to access to Facebook, MySpace, Twitter and LinkedIn in an experiment to learn more about social media use. Some of the takeaways were shocking, including that 40 percent of students polled reported using social media 11-20 hours per day. Roughly the same amount of faculty reported using social media six to 11 hours per day.
According to a Nielsen report earlier this year, the global average time spent per person on social networking sites is nearly five and a half hours per month.
Additional survey questions backed up the impact of the HU blackout on groups of students and faculty seemingly married to social media sites.
“Initial reactions to the blackout were similar for students and faculty. Both groups were skeptical and upset at the onset of the social media blackout,” the report says.
HU also says its survey suggests that addiction to social media seems possible, especially considering several faculty and staff reported spending more than 20 hours a day on social media.
Other interesting bits the survey uncovered:
– Nearly one-third of students reported feeling less stressed during the blackout week.
– 10 percent of students reported enjoying face-to-face conversations during time they’d normall spend on Facebook.
– 6 percent of students reported eating better and exercising more during blackout week.
While many of these results would seem to challenge some of the mammoth positive impact of social media, it’s hard to make any sweeping generalizations. After all, it was a Lock Haven University study released last month that reported Tweeting can boost grade-point averages.
So go ahead and join us on Facebook and Twitter to discuss.
Joe Petrucci is managing editor of Keystone Edge. Send feedback here.
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