Study: Online Gaming is Good for the Kids

[Xander]

The report, sponsored by the MacArthur Foundation, contradicts the idea held by many educators, parents and policymakers that children should be blocked from online social networks and video games like Halo, which allow users in different locations to play together. Instead, children should be encouraged to use the technologies to gain a certain level of digital literacy, the study said.

Mizuko Ito, a research scientist in UC Irvine's department of informatics who led the study, said that children who don't have access to some of today's most popular online diversions risk being social outsiders lacking some of the basic skills necessary to function in the Internet age.

"There is this generational gap in thinking about the value that social networking brings," she said.

Facebook and MySpace, which offer users the ability to create personal home pages, have become some of the Internet's most popular sites over the past few years. Many adolescents use the services - some for hours a day - to keep in touch with friends by posting updates, sharing photos and adjusting their profiles.

But critics have called social networking a distraction and, in some cases, a danger because of the potential for children to befriend strangers. Hoping to limit children's use of the services, some schools now block access to such sites.

Called the Digital Youth Project, the study was conducted over three years starting in 2005 during which a team of researchers interviewed more than 800 kids and observed teens online for more than 5,000 hours. The goal was to provide an ethnographical view of how children use social media - an umbrella term for social-networking and video-sharing sites and multiplayer video games - to socialize, relax and learn.

Children use technology to maintain "always on" communication with their friends, through social networking, instant messaging and text messaging, the study said. These forms of contact have emerged as the new public hangout for teens, replacing school hallways, shopping malls and the street.

Take the example cited in the report of two dating 17-year olds who wake up and immediately instant message each other, then switch to mobile phones while on route to campus, then send text messages during class. After spending time together doing homework, they talk on the phone or send text messages to say good night and "I love you."

Parents may find the new digital reality mystifying because it didn't exist during their childhoods, the researchers said. But barring children from it, they concluded, eliminates an important social and recreational activity and could leave them ignorant of how to interact, not only in their youth, but also potentially in their professional lives.

For a minority of children, the casual use of social media served as a springboard to them gaining technological expertise - labeled in the study as "geeking out," the researchers said. By asking friends or getting help from people met through online groups, some children learned to adjust the software code underpinning some of the video games they played, edit videos and fix computer hardware.

Given that the use of social media serves as inspiration to learning, schools should abandon their hostility and support children when they want to learn some skills more sophisticated than simply designing their Facebook page, the study said.

Although not discussed in the study, Ito said that children need to balance the amount of time they spend online so that they can complete their homework, just like, she said, "when we were kids we had to balance the time we spent on the phone."


source

Thanks for DAmwake for providing a more in depth story.

[SuperSonic]

Okay, now i'm usually the first person to speak (shout) out when some stupid "study" comes out to put gaming down, but in what way is having your parenthood, sexuality and ethnic background questioned in very, er, "colourful" language (unless of cource you're the one dishing out the "convosation" like most 8 yr old Americans I hear playing M rated games) on Xbox Live good for kids again? x]

[Lugiacatcher1]

I disagree.But then again I dont care.My lil bro plays games like Mortal Kombat an dit doesnt phaze him one bit.

[Asassinator X]

You can believe of what you want, but I disagree. It sorta good cuz you can talk with friends online but it's bad if you get into some arguements online from n00bs.

[nimmoa1]

this is a very debateable subject, one which i am still to pick a side of

[KO8E89]

These guys are only trying to help us. They're not claiming anything false, but they are just giving their opinion on how games could possibly help kids. Games don't help me, neither do they hurt me.

[TDBlue]

Games defintely help me. I played Battle.net on Starcraft all the time when I was little and for some reason, I know a whole lot about new tech. I agree with this study.

[M3Fox]

Ah, good for their digital knowledge. That makes sense. When I first joined this forum, I didn't know what to post or how to edit things, but after discussing with others, I eventually learned. It may not be the same as a video game, but the same idea is there.

I also remember watching TV with captions all of the time because I hadn't figured out how to turn them off (I was seven...) and I could spell words more easily by watching them on the screen and listening to how they sounded and how they were spelled. I'm pretty sure that online games teach in about the same way.

[deyone5]

well games help but then they do not help me they did as the increased my ability to read and know new words. but then some kids do not take advantage of that and like i have read just curse when they play online and stuff or try to argue with you for a little reason like they lost horriblely when i lose realy bad i laugh about it ^_^

[KO8E89]

I'll add on to this theory as well. Back when I played a lot of video games, I sucked horribly at French, so I came up with the perfect way of learning French quick and easy. I would switch the language from English to French in all of my games. Therefore, I was forced to read the French phrases in order to select my destination. Of course, you would need some sort of background learning of the foreign language, but nevertheless, it did tremendously help me.

[Zezima]

Wow that's interesting I never knew it would be good for kids. Time to play more online games!

[jmirra]

would be fine