Facebook use in college. Because of Facebook's rapid rise in popularity among college students, there is a great deal of interest in the relationship between Facebook use and academic performance. One study collected information on n = 1839 undergraduate students to look at the relationships among frequency of Facebook use, participation in Facebook activities, time spent preparing for class, and overall GPA.2 In this study, 8% of the students reported spending no time on Facebook.
(a) Find the sample proportion and the 95% margin of error for the proportion of undergraduates who spend no time on Facebook.
(b) Convert your estimate and margin of error to percents and interpret your findings.
(c) The authors state:
All students surveyed were US residents admitted through the regular admissions process at a 4-year, public, primarily residential institution in the northeastern United States (N = 3866). Students were sent a link to a survey hosted on SurveyMonkey.com, a survey-hosting website, through their university-sponsored email accounts. For the students who did not participate immediately, two additional reminders were sent, 1 week apart. Participants were offered a chance to enter a drawing to win one of 90 $10 Amazon.com gift cards as incentive. A total of 1839 surveys were completed for an overall response rate of 48%.
Discuss how these factors influence your interpretation of the results of this survey.