An examination of the relationships among United States college students' media use habits, need for cognition, and grade point average

Abstract

The current study uses survey methods to understand how US college students' use of various types of social media, such as social networking websites and text messaging on smart phones, as well as consumption of traditional media, such as watching television and reading books for pleasure, is (or is not) related to intellectual cognitive processing and performance in school. The current results, which were based on a number of multiple regression analyses, revealed college students’ use of traditional media appears to be a significant and viable predictor of both college students’ grade point averages (GPAs) and their levels of need for cognition (NFC). On the other hand, college students’ use of socially interactive technologies appears to be wholly unrelated to college students’ GPAs and their levels of NFC. Implications of these findings, both in terms of the relationships among social and traditional media use and success at school as well as relationships among shifts in young people's media use habits and possible related shifts in their levels of cognitive processing, are explored.

Keywords:

• socially interactive technologies
• need for cognition
• traditional media
• college grade point average
• computer mediated communication

Notes on Contributors

Jacob S. Turner, PhD Bowling Green State University 2009 is an Assistant Professor of Communication at Merrimack College. His research interests include Quantitative content analysis of media messages, mediated sports communication, popular music and music videos studies, intercultural and interfaith communication as well as the wide and varied psycho-social impacts of media technology use on the individual.

Stephen M. Croucher, PhD University of Oklahoma 2006 is a Professor of Communication at the University of Jyväskylä. His primary area of research is the intersection of religion and communication. Specifically, his work explores the relationships between religious identification and religiosity on communication behaviors and traits. He has conducted research on five continents. He is currently the editor of Speaker & Gavel and the Journal of Intercultural Communication Research.