Study: Online Gaming is Good for the Kids
A write-up of the study in the San Francisco Chronicle reflects that online games are integral to children's social development in the same manner as social networking sites like Facebook or MySpace.
"There is this generational gap in thinking about the value that social networking brings," said Mizuko Ito, a University of California Irvine informatics professor who conducted the study.
The researchers argued that restricting kids from social networking "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," according to
The report, which was noticed by Blue's News, also mentioned some auxiliary benefits of time spent online. Many youths who got deeply involved in their online activities--a phenomenon the study called "geeking out"--learned to program computers, edit videos, or fix computer hardware as a result of their dedication.
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goddamnregistration
replyHaving posted trolls / abuse / randomness on forums across the the interwebs I can safely say, no, unless you want raise a fowl mouthed kid who at best has reduced his core vocabulary to nonsense and has seen things that would make a German blush, keep them off the internet.
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Pretty much. You'll be developing the wrong sort of social skills at this stage of your life.
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agreed.. the net is the perfect place for people to act out their inner ASSHOLE.. even if they are nice happy people IRL.. so.. not really the best place for the kiddies to learn from.. TOO BAD most of them are doing just that, without any parental guidance.. gg internet: raising a generation of RL assholes..
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I think social networks like Facebook are pretty good. Because if you friend with enough people, it sort of forces you on good behavior there. You don't want to act like jerk if everyone you know will see it.
Even random forums can be good once kids learn the value of participating in them by contributing and hearing different perspectives on certain issues. Though I do know someone who goes to SA.com and always seems to pick up the worst opinions from there and make them his own. hehh.
