I found this article on the news section of this site and was quite frankly disgusted:

A study has linked Facebook users with worse exam results than their non-social networking friends.

Researchers at Ohio State University found students who enjoy communicating via cyberspace spend less time studying and risk getting a whole grade lower than their peers as a result despite more than three quarters of Facebook users claiming their interaction with friends on the site didn’t interfere with their work.

The study claims Facebook users averaged one to five hours a week studying, while non-users studied 11 to 15 hours per week.

The researchers surveyed 219 students at Ohio State University, including 102 undergraduate students and 117 graduate students. Of the participants, 148 said they had a Facebook account.
Aryn Karpinski, co-author of the study and a doctoral student in education at Ohio State University, said: “We can't say that use of Facebook leads to lower grades and less studying – but we did find a relationship there.

"There's a disconnect between students' claim that Facebook use doesn't impact their studies, and our finding showing they had lower grades and spent less time studying."

How presumptuous that Facebook is only used as a distraction as opposed to a useful tool.  Social Networking is part of society nowadays and is only as much of a distraction from studying as any other form of social interaction or work.  If somebody wants to work hard and get good grades, they will be able to balance the usage of Facebook and other social networking tools in the same way that they balance normal life with study.  Or do others not agree?

I didn't join Facebook until I was in my third year. But I didn't get addicted to it at all, I don't really see how people can spend hours on there - I am only on for a couple of mins at a time maximum. But I know from experience that any sort of procrastination will work!

It's a debate that's been going on for ages, and certainly got a lot of interest on here judging by the number of comments.

Of course Facebook will get in the way of work if you let it, but you've got to be pretty work-shy for it to get so bad it affects your grades.

I don't think Facebook gets in the way of work.  When you're working 9 hours a day, you need to relax for a few minutes at points throughout the day, and it doesn't make a difference whether the site you use to do that is BBC News, a football website, or Facebook.

In my opinion workers who doss around all day, will always find a website to use, even if Facebook is banned!

I agree - nobody can focus all the time and needs some relaxation methods.  Facebook and Twitter are not the only diversions from study/work out there.  There is always going to be something and there will always need to be.

Facebook is needed to relax and keep in touch with the world!! During exams this is even more important as you can so often feel like you have the world on your shoulders and fb is a good way of supporting each other.  Def a good thing :)

Definately, I have to try and switch off from it, but theres always the temptation to take a "quick" look, which can often turn into a wasted half hour session...

Good in moderation. It is important to keep a balance, obviously work should prioritise but there is such thing as too much work