Is social media really affecting academic performance?

New research has found that when it comes to school performance, social media has little influence on a student's grades. © skynesher / Istock.com

Although many parents may be worried that the rise of social media is distracting children from their studies, new European research suggests that using sites such as Snapchat, Facebook, or Instagram has a minimal effect on academic performance.  

Carried out by researchers from the University of Bamberg, Germany, the new study set out to clarify whether social media does in fact have a negative impact on school grades, looking at 59 studies that included more than 30,000 young people worldwide.