Researchers at several Russian universities have developed a new way to predict how well students will do in their studies by analyzing what they do on social media. They looked at the public profiles of 4,445 students on the Russian social network VKontakte.
How Social Media Relates to Grades
The computer programs they used didn’t just look at what topics the students followed. They also examined how complex their posts were and the emotions in their writing. The results showed that students who got good grades tended to follow science and education groups that shared analytical information. On the other hand, students who spent more time on entertainment content generally had lower grades.
One surprising finding was that students who were interested in art and travel actually tended to have better grades. However, being active in groups related to part-time jobs was linked to students having more academic problems.
This technology could be used in several ways. For example, universities might use it to help them choose which students to admit. It could also be useful for companies when hiring new employees. However, this research also brings up important questions about how we use social media responsibly and how we protect our personal information in a world where so much of our lives is online.