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Facebook, Online Gaming et al Help Socilisation, Rather then Hindering it

LeitnerLeitner Registered User regular
edited November 2008 in Games and Technology
The results of a three-year longitudinal study funded by the MacArthur Foundation have argued that online games and social networking tools help kids' development, rather than hinder it.

The Digital Youth Project, led by Mizuko Ito at University of California, Irvine, found that kids who don't engage in these spaces are left out of crucial social skills building experience which set them up for future interactions.


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.


Two Page Summary of Results


Full Report


Pretty interesting.

Leitner on
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