High school students who spent significant time viewing social networking Web sites such as MySpace, text-messaging on cell phones or instant-messaging on computers often saw their grades drop, according to research by a California State University, Fresno professor.

Dr. Tamyra Pierce of the Department of Mass Communication and Journalism surveyed 517 students attending three high schools in Fresno and Sanger. Co-researcher Roberto Vaca, a guidance learning specialist at Sanger High School and a graduate of Fresno State, suggested the project.

Their surveys found 49 percent of students responding reported lower grades than last year. Students with MySpace accounts – 72 percent (371 students) – reported their grades were significantly lower this year than last year, compared to students without MySpace accounts, meaning the probability is less than 1 out of 1,000 times this would occur by chance, Pierce said.

“We can’t know for sure that MySpace caused the lower grades,” Pierce added, “but when compared to other after-school activities (work, sports, video games, etc), only MySpace showed significance.”

More than half of the students surveyed said they check their MySpace accounts at least once a day, and 59 percent spend between 30 minutes and six hours daily on MySpace.

Two percent said they spend seven or more hours a day on MySpace, a popular site used by teens and others as an online meeting place. Like diaries available to the public online, the sites allow users to tell about themselves and their activities, post pictures, play songs and chat with “friends” around the world.

Among the survey’s other findings:

42 percent of students who have MySpace accounts said they “always,” “frequently” or “sometimes” have MySpace open while doing homework

41 percent of the students who have text messaging capability said they text message while doing homework. More than three-quarters of students surveyed had cell phones, and more than 81 percent of them had text-messaging capability

Of 353 students with instant-messaging capability (68 percent of the survey group), 27 percent said they have IM open while doing homework

34 percent of students with MySpace accounts said they put off homework to spend time on MySpace

Pierce said students who had MySpace accounts open while doing homework and students who “put off” doing homework to be on MySpace reported lower grades on current report cards than students who did not.

Nearly half of students (47 percent) also reported that they text message while in class and 12 percent said they text message during an exam.

“For years television has been the technology that preoccupied teens’ time and distracted them from their homework. However, with the advancement in technology, teens now have many other gadgets that can keep them from their obligations,” said Pierce.

“Just as parents were encouraged to set time limits on television and computer use after school, so too should they set guidelines for using MySpace, cell phones and other technology that may interfere with their educational priorities,” she said.

The grades research is the third examination of social networking sites and teen behavior that Pierce has conducted. Her previous research projects examined the frequency of contact by strangers online and the widespread sexually explicit images, profanity and violent content on MySpace and other social networking sites.

Click here for the interview with Dr. Tamyra Pierce