Study Recommends Online Gaming, Social Networking For Kids

Blue's News pointed out a report about a study sponsored by the MacArthur Foundation which found that online gaming and social networking are beneficial to children, teaching them basic technical skills and how to communicate in the Information Age. The study was conducted over a period of three years, with researchers interviewing hundreds of children and monitoring thousands of hours of online time. The full white paper (PDF) is also available. "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."

Sounds About Right

[osfancy]

I can certainly see how online gaming or social networking might help these kids develop a better understanding of technology. However, we probably don't want them to become obsessed with these kinds of interactions and become completely inadequate in conventional social situations.

Telling you what you want to hear

[bradgoodman]

Who sponsored this study, Blizzard?!

As a parent, techy and gamer - I hope no one is swallowing this load of tripe...

If you want to teach your kids to socialize - have them go out and socialize, or socialize with them!!

This is the kind of study that tells people what they want to hear.

Hey! You parents that are sticking your kids on an XBox for 6 hours a day to shut them up: You're all doing a great job! Keep up the good work!!

And for all you guys who live your lives gaming and never see the light of day - no, you're really the outgoing, social ones!

I'm going to teach my kids to smoke - to help them build up their immunity to pollution...

Re:This will be forgotten by next year...

[Anonymous Coward]

The only thing this white paper really says is that kids who use technology are good at interacting with others who use the same technology.

Classic Slashdot

[Rary]

What follows is not a comment on the story, but a meta-comment. Feel free to mod as you wish.

This is classic Slashdot. The story is tagged "suddenoutbreakofcommonsense". If the exact same study had come to the opposite conclusion (ie. online gaming and social networking is bad for kids), it would be tagged "correlationisnotcausation", and everyone would be trashing the methodology.

Slashdot is funny. This is part of why I keep coming back here.

Everything in moderation

[Millennium]

Moderation is key. Online gaming and social networks have a nasty habit of eating people (metaphorically, of course). That needs to be prevented. But as long as they're in moderation, carefully balanced with other activities (and more to the point, activity) and monitored for safety, then these things can indeed be great learning tools for children.

Re:Sounds About Right

[0racle]

I can certainly see how online gaming or social networking might help these kids develop a better understanding of technology

I disagree. I play a MMO and have played this MMO for a few years now. The vast majority of players never learn a thing about the magic white box or the magical internet that brings them the game and their porn. The few that do, do so outside the game because they wanted to and so went out and learned. Simply using something doesn't teach any understanding of it.

As for social interaction? The little assholes who act like assholes coming in, act like assholes going out. They didn't learn anything their either.

Re:Sounds About Right

[osfancy]

While some learn nothing of the magic mirror that takes them into their fantasy world there might be others who find in it something that inspires them to learn more.

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[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

You've GOT to be KIDDING

[Duncan Blackthorne]

I'm most emphatically not one of the "think of the children!" asshats, but all I can think, is that amidst a growing problem with childhood obesity and general disconnectedness from reality, we want to encourage kids to sit in front of a computer more than they already do? Instead of, say, something completely radical and outlandish, like, say, going outside, doing something physical, and maybe interacting with live, real children their own age??!? Quick, somebody do the research, find out which (or how many) of the game companies these people were paid by to do this so-called "study".

Re:Sounds About Right

[Anonymous Coward]

If simply using the tool lead in any way to understanding, or simply wishing to understand, by now we would have a ton of mechanics, telecom technicians and electricians.

You seem to have missed the GP's point (I admit, it wasn't a very well written statement). They're not saying using a tool will cause you to become interested in it, but using a tool can cause interest in it. You're claiming he said the former, while they really said the later. And the later point is true. Your point is also true, except it has nothing to do about arguing against the GP.

Re:I've got to get my glasses fixed. I read...

[UttBuggly]

I don't feel it's an "either-or" situation. Certainly not in my own experience. My son, now 24, had PC and Mac access from age 3. We used WordPerfect to help reinforce language learning for him.

BUT, we also did soccer, martial arts, and he was on his high school's weightlifting team. As well as a "geek team" that wrote video games.

I think it's a balancing act that requires some thinking and planning on the part of the parents.

Today, my son shares a house with a Karate friend and fellow geek he grew up with. (they both work IT jobs) They play WoW, CounterStrike, etc. with a group of friends, cousins, etc. that are both old and "new"...people they've met at work or in the neighborhood. Both are in good physical shape and hardly the stereotype of a typical geek.

I think the possibility of my son ending up like the WoW player in the classic South Park episode was there, but we always found things that DIDN'T involve staying glued to a CRT to offset that.

My son is an only child and was quite shy when he was young. Learning to socialize online AND in person has made him an outgoing, funny young man. He can be the life-of-the-party, but doesn't NEED to be.

I truly believe trying many things, including online gaming (he was a capper on MY Tribes team, btw), helped make him a fairly well-rounded kid.

The problem I see today, all too frequently, is parents letting the HDTV, Xbox, PC, etc. become a silicon babysitter and teacher and that's just plain STUPID and LAZY.

Re:Study funders

[unlametheweak]

As long as it's balanced with real life "social networking" online interaction is beneficial. But if the next generation of young people enter the real world knowing nothing but how to text each other, run a successful WoW raid and manage friends on Facebook, we're looking at an epidemic of cognitive dissonance.

Social networking can be just as dysfunctional offline as online. Once again I see demonstrated a prejudice to the online world. I've found "real life" and the "real world" concepts that have epidemic cognitive dissonance associated with them. Variety is often nice and sometimes useful however. I've generally found the online world to be more intelligent and safer. One can at least turn off a computer, ignore or ban a Troll or bully; it's much more difficult in "real" life. At least when I was a kid parents or teachers (or the law for that matter) did very little about this; these days (it seems) like the law and society are over-reacting. Intelligence is often hard to find, but the Internet makes it easier.

Re:Telling you what you want to hear

[pnumoman]

Why are you being so closed minded? By making sweeping generalizations, you are simply pulling a Jack Thompson. This study is not telling you to force your kid to play MMO's, nor is it telling you to let your kid play MMO's for hours on end. It is simply saying that there are benefits to playing MMO's that may not be readily apparent. It is not a parenting manual, nor is it purporting to be. Moderation and adaptability is always key in any child-rearing environment, and that is something that is sorely lacking in your reply.