A new study from Michigan State University has found that Internet use can be detrimental to classroom performance. Students enrolled in an introductory psychology class at the university were asked to log into a proxy server that monitored their online activity for 15 class sessions. During the hour and 50-minute classes, participants spent a median of 37 minutes browsing the Internet for non-class-related purposes. Participants spent most of their time on social media, followed by email, shopping, watching videos, chatting, reading news, and playing games. Through looking at students’ cumulative final-exam score, the authors found that non-academic Internet use was inversely related to classroom performance. Class-related Internet use was also not associated with a benefit to classroom performance.
http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/0956797616677314