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Obama Cautions Kids against Social Networking

Pulkit Chandna — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 20:13:43 -0500

Ninth graders at Wakefield High School in Arlington, Virginia, were greeted by some social networking advice from President Obama on Tuesday. He advised them to not let their guard down on social networking sites such as Facebook, for the ghosts of their gay abandon could come back to haunt them later.

“I want everybody here to be careful about what you post on Facebook,” Obama told a group of 40 ninth graders. “Because in the YouTube age, whatever you do, it will be pulled up again later somewhere in your life. And when you’re young, you make mistakes and you do some stupid stuff. ”

Recent studies have shown that an increasing number of hiring managers closely examine the social networking profiles of job candidates. So, a bit of caution on the part of these kids will at least ensure that they don’t remain unemployed because of social networking gaffes.

Image Credit: PrezBaby

Are Kids Spending Too Much Time Online?

Paul Lilly — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 07:00:38 -0500

This probably won't come as much of a shocker, but according to a new study from Nielson Online, our impressionable youth are hopping on the Internet at a much faster rate than either their parents or siblings.

More specifically, the study found that the Internet was populated with nearly 16 million kids between the age of 2 and 11 last May. That's an 18 percent growth rate for that age group in the past five years, compared to 10 percent growth among all Internet users.

Not only are kids tapping into cyber-space more often, but they're also staying connected longer than before. According to the study, children logged 11 hours of online time in May, up from 7 hours in May of 2004.

Fresh Studies Establish Value of Games, Link Violent Games and Violence

Pulkit Chandna — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 12:18:40 -0500

Cognitive and Perceptual Skill Enhancement: A couple of psychologists at the Fordham University, namely Fran C. Blumberg and Sabrina S. Ismailer, studied problem-solving patterns among school children. The study involved 122 kids from 5th, 6th and 7th grades, who were made to play games they hadn’t confronted before. They came to the conclusion that younger kids don’t only take playing videogames as a leisurely activity like older kids and adults but also set short-term goals for problem-solving. And thus benefit greatly from video games.

Hyper-Dexterous Surgeons and Violent Gamers: It is a well known fact that gaming is used as a training exercise by top surgeons to increase precision. That enhanced precision coupled with improved dexterity has a positive impact on surgical error levels, according to a study. The research paper presented by an Iowa University psychologist duo, Douglas Gentile and William Stone, also studied high school and college kids apart from laparoscopic surgeons.

The kids that play violent games tend to be inured to the violence and prone to violent behavior, according to the research. On the other hand, the ones that play more benign games are less prone to violent.

Scientific Reasoning and Gamers: A study by two University of Wisconsin researchers, Constance Steinkuehler and Sean Duncan, took stock of scientific reasoning capabilities of World of Warcraft gamers using their discussion on WOW forums. They found that 86% of gamers shared their knowledge with each other and a 58% indeed used orderly and analytical methods in their discussions about the game. Hence proved, games also foster scientific reasoning.

Image Credit Seoul.Go.kr

Videogame Violence: A Fair and Balanced Study?

Thomas MacDonald — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 14:26:18 -0500

We’re at a point in history when, if gamers are to maintain credibility, we need to acknowledge both the good and bad in our passion. Grand Theft Childhood ($25, Simon & Schuster) by Lawrence Kutner and Cheryl K. Olson is a fair and comprehensive study of games and violence, and we would do well to pay attention to its conclusions.

The good: After thorough research, the team utterly dismisses the outrageous claims about games inspiring real-life violence. For example, gaming gadfly Jack Thompson states outright that since Virginia Tech shooter Seung-Hui Cho played Counter-Strike in high school, the game was responsible for the acts he committed: “These are real people that are in the ground now because of this game. I have no doubt about it,” Thompson explained. Kutner and Olson, as well as the Virginia Tech Review Panel and the FBI, are having none of it, stating there is no linkage between criminal violence (particularly school shootings) and violent games.

The bad: There is a correlation between middle school children who play violent, M-rated games and actual antisocial behavior. These kids aren’t carjacking old ladies, pistol whipping store clerks, or defeating alien invaders with any greater frequency than their peers, but they tend to “act up” more, get in trouble in school, fight, and disrupt class.

Kutner and Olson refuse, however, to make a conclusion about which direction that cause/effect relationship travels. Are aggressive kids drawn to M-rated games, or do the games make them aggressive? Even with their large data set, Kutner and Olson are reluctant to blame games as the sole factor that affects children’s behavior. Logic dictates that no 13-year-old should be playing Grand Theft Auto, the most played game among boys (and the second most played among girls, who preferred The Sims by a slimmer-than-expected margin), simply because they’re not psychologically equipped to parse the violent, amoral, and satiric elements of the series.

Grand Theft Childhood is a refreshing mixture of hard science and common sense. I approached this study expecting more heat than light and came out illuminated. It’s going to be a vital element in the upcoming debates as politicians attempt to score points by cracking down on violence in gaming.