Has the Internet caused your school marks to lower?

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It probably has caused my marks to lower, stupid distractions!! I'm not trying to demonize the Internet as it has many good uses but I can't focus on school work for a long time. I don't know if it has caused my marks to lower in 2nd year university as I got bored of studying the school work because I was so lost as to what was going on so probably I would've still be lost if I didn't have the internet.

Ironically, stupid WP!! Really Addicting!! (Irony because I'm posting on here right now)

In my case if it wasn't the internet it'd be something else distracting me...

I just can't get started when it comes to uni work

Nope.
I get good enough grades with the internet.
I learn enough during lessons and during homework.
The internet calms me greatly and teaches me wonderful things about neutron stars and how imperfections in the crust can cause gravity waves which stretch every atom they encounter.

I doubt it. I use the internet to do research on various things (I use other media as well, but I spend most of my time on the internet); if I didn't do that, I probably wouldn't have as good a grounding in what I'm studying. I can't focus so well with other people around me, so I found it very useful to be able to access important articles through the internet, rather than having to go to a library. But it's not limited to the more essential texts - simply being able to read through the wikipedia page of a related subject can give you a better sense of the context of, and therefore a better understanding of, the specific ideas you're researching.

Also, I really struggle to talk to people offline. I much prefer communicating via the written word. If there were no online communities available to engage with, I think the last few years would have been a lot more lonely, stressful and frustrating, and that would almost certainly have had a negative impact on my education.

Of course, the internet can also be a tool for distraction and procrastination. That's not something that's limited to the internet, though. If the internet didn't exist, I might have a book I need to read for my course, but I'll end up reading another book instead, or watching a television program, or going out for a walk, or doing one of a multitude of things that won't be helpful at that moment. It's true that some places on the internet do offer more opportunities for distraction and procrastination: there are hyperlinks everywhere; everything is interconnected - it's easy to go down an unrelated path the minute you see anything that sparks your interest. But there are also places that aren't structured this way. It's a matter of self-control and learning what websites are best to go on when you need to be more focused. I assume the teachers/lecturers of whatever course/s you're studying would be able to offer some suggestions of useful sites like this.

Last edited by you_are_what_you_is on 29 Mar 2010, 2:26 pm, edited 1 time in total.

I felt lonely too, thats why i joined WP but then the website is distracting me.

It's not unusual - or even necessarily problematic - do be distracted by social interaction. Most people probably get distracted by offline social interaction; communication with people online is a different type of the same thing. It may seem like such distractions have a negative impact on one's work, but you have to consider what the situation might be if you didn't have any social interaction to be distracted by. If you're feeling lonely and this is making you sad and despressed, that's likely to effect your ability in work, too. So websites such as this might be helping you, even though they are sometimes distracting.

But of course, everybody's different. Just because the internet has had a positive impact on me, doesn't necessarily mean it's had a positive impact on you.

Probably yes... ): I'll start thinking of something random whilst doing homework/revision etc, and then have to google it, and then find different websites related to it, and then see something there, and go off on another strange tangent, that leaves me looking up something even more pointless...

Or I'll just waste time on facebook, or neopets (the second of which isn't common knowledge amoung my friends)

I should be revising biology now ):

I think the internet has actually helped my grades improve; it's like an endless research facility for me that really comes in useful whenever I have to write essays and stuff like that.

Plus it serves as an anxiety relief for me; the internet never fails to make me happy.

It did until I became very strict with myself about usage.

When I was going to college and university, WP did not exist. Computers and the Internet were not anything like it is now. It seems so strange thinking about how life was then. But gradually all this evolved and I was using computers only for doing research for term papers and presentations. No playing around. I don't know that it helped my grades, I had great grades with or without computers. What it did do was make my life easier and saved me a lot of time.

The Internet saved my marks, actually. I can't follow the movies we watch in class due to too many distractions, so I always look up the plot summaries, analyses, scripts, etc. online. I also look up book analyses on Sparknotes. It's very helpful for English... I found the fiction books we read in English, especially Shakespeare, very hard to follow, but thanks to the Internet, I've aced all my English essays and assignments last year.

The Internet is the best thing ever invented. I swear.

Personally, no. But it was a temptation and a distraction I had to control.

Me too, except it's high school work, not Uni. work

I used Sparknotes a lot in grade 12 English for Shakespeare. I didn't ace my essays though, I porbably would've gotten 60s instead of 70 for the final mark.

Believe it or not, no, it has actually for some reason it's improved my grades.
I also tend to use it to research, it does actually help.

Maybe. I hated school so I turned to the internet a lot. But then again, if the internet wouldn't exist, I probably would have turned to books, movies or what else.