Study Says Wasting Time Online Is Actually Good For Kids

A new study in the U.S. has found that time spent surfing the internet, playing games and hanging out on social networks is an important part of teenagers' development.

Sponsored by the MacArthur Foundation, the study ran for three years and involved more than 800 teenagers and parents as part of a larger, $50 million Digital Youth Research Project dedicated to providing an "ethnographical view of how children use social media to socialize, learn and relax." Dr. Mimi Ito, author of the report, told the BBC that the activities help kids learn to cope in the modern world.

"They are learning the technological skills and literacy needed for the contemporary world," she said. "They are learning how to communicate online, craft a public identity, create a home page, post links. All these things were regarded as sophisticated 10 years ago but young people today take them for granted."

She added that the opportunity to "take a deep dive into a subject" often resulted in the acquisition of knowledge beyond the original topic. "In one of my own case studies around fans of Japanese animations, some kids got involved in different video production groups or online discussion groups," she continued. "They picked up things like the Japanese language or some fairly esoteric knowledge around video, or coding or editing."

She also found, rather unsurprisingly, that a "digital divide" existed between those who had regular web access and those who did not, and urged parents to make themselves aware of what their children are doing on the internet, saying that while many don't fully understand what their kids are doing online, an opportunity exists for them to provide "real guidance and help." "Young people don't want their parents or teachers on their MySpace or Facebook page," she said. "But in the interest-driven side, there is a more productive role for parents and teachers to play that will help them connect with kids and their lives."

"Learning today is becoming increasingly peer-based and networked,"added MacArthur Foundation Education Director Connie Yowell, "and this is important to consider as we begin to re-imagine education in the 21st century."

A new study countering the results of this study is expected sometime next week.

(Thanks to Danzorz for the tip.)

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Hah. Win. Unsurprisingly I agree with them, the internet pretty much raised me from 12. 'Twas like a Father to me. A...very disturbed and often quite scary father anyway.

Finally, some good press for games.

Its also good for the complete retardation of the English language, something the study didn't take into account.

Amnestic:
Hah. Win. Unsurprisingly I agree with them, the internet pretty much raised me from 12. 'Twas like a Father to me. A...very disturbed and often quite scary father anyway.

Haha. That is one way to put it. It was a real benefit being born just before the Internet revolution. I can't imagine life without it.

I think that it promotes independence and will lead to more independent thought, but as a catch languages will decline like the stock market. But this is all depending on where you go

Wow, I get to use a quote from Red Vs. Blue that makes sense with the situation for once:

"Could you put that in a memo and entitle it "SHIT I ALREADY KNOW?"

EDIT:

fish food carl:
Wait, what tip? I'm a bit confused, what did Danzorz do?

He probably told the writer (whose name I'm too lazy to go see) about this, possibly gave him a link, etc.

AuntyEthel:
Its also good for the complete retardation of the English language, something the study didn't take into account.

It's called language evolution.

Dice_Morgan:

shadow_pirate22:
Finally, some good press for games.

Its about time! I completely agree with this article :P

Now we only need about 14,267,894 more sources of good press and we'll just about even out the amount of bad press that they get in a month's worth of time.

I have so much to thank internet for. I mean that's how I learned english, it taught me better than any teacher in the past 12 years...

Amnestic:
Hah. Win. Unsurprisingly I agree with them, the internet pretty much raised me from 12. 'Twas like a Father to me. A...very disturbed and often quite scary father anyway.

Oh yes and he never did lock that old trunk full of porn either.

bluemarsman:

AuntyEthel:
Its also good for the complete retardation of the English language, something the study didn't take into account.

It's called language evolution.

Soon we will be talking in just clicks and beeps... oh, wait...

bluemarsman:

AuntyEthel:
Its also good for the complete retardation of the English language, something the study didn't take into account.

It's called language evolution.

So LOL, MOAR, teh, spelling words incorrectly and using shitty grammer is language evolution? That's like saying humans evolved into chimpanzees.

AuntyEthel:

bluemarsman:

AuntyEthel:
Its also good for the complete retardation of the English language, something the study didn't take into account.

It's called language evolution.

So LOL, MOAR, teh, spelling words incorrectly and using shitty grammer is language evolution? That's like saying humans evolved into chimpanzees.

Dictionaries, classrooms, "distinguished attitudes" and other social factors will generally keep the rampant chaos of language under control, while in anarchic environments like the internet it will continue at such a rate. I'm not particularly bothered by this. After all, I have no problem separating 'fun' language from formal - I haz smarts in mah head!

dalek sec:

Amnestic:
Hah. Win. Unsurprisingly I agree with them, the internet pretty much raised me from 12. 'Twas like a Father to me. A...very disturbed and often quite scary father anyway.

Oh yes and he never did lock that old trunk full of porn either.

He locked the cupboards and put some on the top shelf where I couldn't reach, but he failed to take note of all the stuff I'd already taken out and hidden around my room.

You can't stop the porn machine from rolling.

Ah the information and porn highway... I thank it for a lot of things (no not porn).

AuntyEthel:

bluemarsman:

AuntyEthel:
Its also good for the complete retardation of the English language, something the study didn't take into account.

It's called language evolution.

So LOL, MOAR, teh, spelling words incorrectly and using shitty grammer is language evolution? That's like saying humans evolved into chimpanzees.

"Remember you were chimps, and to chimps you shall return".......????? ;)

shadow_pirate22:
Finally, some good press for games.

secdonded

Amnestic:
You can't stop the porn machine from rolling.

Most surreal. Sentence. Ever.

Cool.

I love the Internet.

And I think it loves me, too.

Aw, Internet. You're too kind.

Wasting time on Wikipedia... I learned a lot on that in the recent years.

It's kind of scary to know that adults are just now figuring out what we in generation Y knew all along.

Amnestic:
Hah. Win. Unsurprisingly I agree with them, the internet pretty much raised me from 12. 'Twas like a Father to me. A...very disturbed and often quite scary father anyway.

A pretty damn sexy father, wait I think I would prefer to call it mother.

Yes, I pretty much can see this side of the coin of the Internetz and not the other side of the coin, aka, 4-chan. I bet they didn't take /b/ into account in their study.

Glad to hear all those years weren't wasted after all

yeah, this wasn't obvious at all.

look at any given online community and you can very easily see people maturing from "trolls" to "regulars"

I learned how to act around others through an online message board as well FAR more than I ever did in High School (high school is full of immaturity, after all. internet communities that last for long periods of time tend to have some maturity sprinkled in (and yes, I'm aware of 4chan :p)).

obviously you can't exist on computer alone, but it's definitely a good thing. why did it take scientists to figure this out? :p

Amnestic:
Hah. Win. Unsurprisingly I agree with them, the internet pretty much raised me from 12. 'Twas like a Father to me. A...very disturbed and often quite scary father anyway.

The internet was more like a really cool older brother to me. Giving me a virus, and then informing me how to get rid of it. Or those silly little videos where it asks you to watch closely and then something pops up and screams at you. Introducing me to the wonderful world of por.... errr... gaming...

*sigh* Gooood times...

Malygris:
She added that the opportunity to "take a deep dive into a subject" often resulted in the acquisition of knowledge beyond the original topic. "In one of my own case studies around fans of Japanese animations, some kids got involved in different video production groups or online discussion groups," she continued. "They picked up things like the Japanese language or some fairly esoteric knowledge around video, or coding or editing."

Notice they either gloss over the fact that the "esoteric video knowledge" is largely driven by pirated video, or they are completely oblivious to it. I found that rather funny.

However, I am aware that the fansub community diving deep into both the language knowledge as well as the video knowledge, so its not all piracy-driven.

Lies! All Lies! Anything new that I don't understand has to be bad for my children because the world hasn't changed in the 30 years it's been since I was 15!