Rather than wasting their time, children who gab on Facebook or play online games are gaining valuable social skills and learning some technology basics, according to a study to be released today.
…children who don’t have access to some of today’s most popular online diversions risk being social outsiders lacking some of the basic skills necessary to function in the Internet age.
“There is this generational gap in thinking about the value that social networking brings,” she said.
Parents may find the new digital reality mystifying because it didn’t exist during their childhoods, the researchers said. But barring children from it, they concluded, 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.
Of course, the comments are pretty much what you’d expect from 1950s parents ranting about rock and roll or 1980s parents worried about too much space invaders…
vernondozier writes:
social skills?…what social skills?…text-messages,emails and facebook are not a replacement for actual human contact in real time…not virtual time inside a PC…youth today can’t spell,compose a paragraph or read at their grade level…but according to this article they can text each other with expertise…wonderful..
makesyathink writes:
wonder who paid for this study? They said that kids with no TV would be left behind too and it is simply is not true. Read most text messages between kids and it is all chatter with no real meaning.
gojira writes:
“Read most text messages between kids and it is all chatter with no real meaning.” Although exactly could be said about listening in on their conversations. The overwhelming majority of young people are, sad to say, pretty stupid. Which is not a new development. That’s certainly how it was for my generation, and most of them grew into equally stupid adults.
It’s kinda ironic. When I was growing up, my grandfather was concerned about the amount of television I watched. Then later my father was concerned after I got my first ‘colour’ computer that I was spending too much time in front of that. Really, the amount of time spent there is immaterial if the experience is positive. And we didn’t even have the internet back then. I was using the computer to write as opposed to play computer games. I still spend 99% of my computer time either reading what others have written or writing.
Is this considered negative because I wasn’t at the park with my friends? I’d have to remind my father that when I was eight years old he bribed me with a pound note to read an entire Alastair McClean thriller. And thus began my descent into nerd-dom.
But is it bad? Despite a diversion into biology which lasted me from age 12 to graduating with an Honours degree in Genetics, I’d always liked computers. I still don’t own a ‘grown up’ games console (the family has a Wii). I meet with gaming friends once a week (whom I met on the ‘net), I also have at least one other night a week where I’m meeting interesting people (Belfast OpenCoffeeClub), other Mac nerds (NiMUG), mobile technology enthusiasts (Mobile Monday Belfast) or any of the other events I get invited to. To be honest – there are many more that I have to turn down due to just not having enough days in the week. Hardly the image of a social outcast that ‘concerned individuals’ would have you believe – and I reckon I spend more time online than anyone I know…
>>>Hardly the image of a social outcast that ‘concerned individuals’ would have you believe
Well, there it is. You’re a social outcast who socializes with other social outcasts. Now you worry me. You might actually find out you can create a society of your own!
Slan! I call Slan!