Gamers less likely to study at uni. *article*

[bob1052]

inb4 the crowd of people who will say anything to trivialize a study that isn't in favor of gaming before turning around to quote any that are.

I'll trivialize it because the article title is kind of jumping the gun. The article is more about reading vs non reading kids.
Heck the article even says directly

"The research suggests teenagers who spend a lot of time playing video games should not worry too much about their career prospects. Playing computer games frequently did not reduce the likelihood that a 16-year-old would be in a professional or managerial job at 33, the research finds. Mr Taylor's analysis also indicates that children who read books and did one other cultural activity further increased their chances of going to university."

So pretty much reading = good, games = no real difference.
The author pretty much buried his own title.

But if reading yields benefits, and gaming has "no real difference" then that means one or both of two things.

1. Games are negating any benefit from reading, causing children identified as gamers by this study to not gain the benefit that reading yields

2. Children who are identified in this study by the common factor of playing games are less likely to read books and therefore they do not gain the benefit that reading yields.

No matter how you look at it, this study is saying that gaming is less than ideal for children, either indirectly or directly (when dealing with post secondary education, the part you quoted about job status at 33 is interesting).

 

[FightThePower]

A couple of things:

Playing computer games regularly and doing no other activities meant the chances of going to university fell from 24 per cent to 19 per cent for boys and from 20 per cent to 14 per cent for girls."

However, he added that times had changed in computer gaming: "The main thing I would highlight, because this is the 1970 cohort, when they played video games in 1986, that's not very many people. And the state of video games in 1986 is nothing like it is now."

Playing computer games frequently did not reduce the likelihood that a 16-year-old would be in a professional or managerial job at 33, the research finds.

Doesn't seem much to worry about - most gamers do more than just play games so I'm guessing that we're still just as likely to go to Uni, just seems to be relevant to the obsessives.

 

[WrongSprite]

*Looks up from University essay*

*Raises middle finger*

*Returns to essay*

 

[godofallu]

So if I play videogames and read it's a wash?

Well i've already graduated from college anyways. So there statistics, take that!

 

[EzraPound]

Doing anything not related to school curricula--and the refinement of reading skills always is--will detract from your ability to achieve high grades.

Also, a lot of kids who play games a lot come from families where parents are divorced, not affluent enough to enroll their kids in programs, busied with work, or any combination of these. So the issue has as much to do with demography as anything else.

That's complete bull and I see no grounds for them to say that. It all depends on the individual and what they do with their time and how organized their priorities are. I am currently a freshman at Arizona State U., and I enjoy the national honor society as I work 4hrs a day on my [Mass Effect 2] LittleBigPlanet 2 re-make. Life is all about balance and smart managment with your resources.



School Work > Family > Employment > Social Life(party) > Sports Recreation > Gaming.

"We all make choices. In the end our choices make us."

I'm pretty sure the point of social studies is to communicate in generalities. The fact you attend university--or that people have a choice--doesn't really change this.

 

[DaHero]

I'm a hardcore gamer and currently in Phi Theta Kappa with a 4.0 (or 5, depends on the college) GPA, their argument is invalid.

 

[Woodsey]

I'm a hardcore gamer and currently in Phi Theta Kappa with a 4.0 (or 5, depends on the college) GPA, their argument is invalid.

If this is serious, you obviously shouldn't have been allowed into Uni with such a minute amount of common sense.

OT: I say correlation =/= causation.

 

[jonyboy13]

Are there gamers from 1970?...

 

[Sad Face]

Going to university is not for everyone and is not a prerequisite of intelligence.

Yup.

 

[PlasmaFrog]

Crappy generalization based on insufficient and irrelevant information.

 

[Jfswift]

I dunno... maybe that's true, but I play an unhealthy amount of games and up until recently was going back to college.

 

[HotFezz8]

http://www.theage.com.au/world/gamers-less-likely-to-study-at-uni-20110409-1d8pj.html

FREQUENTLY playing computer games appears to reduce a teenager's chances of going to university, while reading enhances the likelihood that they will go on to study for a degree, according to research carried out by Oxford University that tracked 17,000 people born in 1970.

What say you, forum?

born in 1970, so they would be, what, 41? this information does not concern genuine video games, "Pong" doesn't count.

 

[Twilight_guy]

The irony: There are universities that teach how to make video games implying that only people who play games go there.

This isn't a very good survey. Its addressing responses not causes. This is like a survey of people with colds to see if anyone with a sore throught also has a runny nose and trying to link the two together outside of the cold. There are factors at play that are only expressed int he from of book reader or playing games, or other things.

 

[Still Life]

http://www.theage.com.au/world/gamers-less-likely-to-study-at-uni-20110409-1d8pj.html

FREQUENTLY playing computer games appears to reduce a teenager's chances of going to university, while reading enhances the likelihood that they will go on to study for a degree, according to research carried out by Oxford University that tracked 17,000 people born in 1970.

What say you, forum?

born in 1970, so they would be, what, 41? this information does not concern genuine video games, "Pong" doesn't count.

What is a genuine video game? Pong may not be an advanced game by today's standards, yet it's no less a video game.

 

[Double A]

I grew more interested in history because of games, and plan on studying it more in college. In fact, I think games have taught me more about history (and mythology) than schools have.

Problem, Taylor?

 

[Xaio30]

92% of all statistics are false.

 

[Casimir_Effect]

I can easily believe this to be true. So many of the people I went to highschool with dropped out of uni for no reason other than they preferred playing game to going to lectures.

 

[Varitel]

I skimmed the article and it seems to say that people who play video games way too much and don't do much else have a lower chance of getting into a university or college. I knew people in high school who spent way too much time on video games and not enough time focusing on their studies. I was in fact one such person. However, I am now an EE major with an attractive GPA at a university. Just because I am not in this group, or because you are not in this group doesn't make the study invalid. After all, the title of the article is not "Gamers Never Go to College". We cannot adequately disprove their findings without doing a broad, rigorous study of our own. It does seem as though they more looked at the over the top gamers than at the average gamer, so we can say at the very least that the title of the article is misleading.

 

[Moonlight Butterfly]

Doing anything not related to school curricula--and the refinement of reading skills always is--will detract from your ability to achieve high grades.

Also, a lot of kids who play games a lot come from families where parents are divorced, not affluent enough to enroll their kids in programs, busied with work, or any combination of these. So the issue has as much to do with demography as anything else.

Really? That's interesting. My parents were a freaking nightmare and every night in my house was like the shining without the axe (sometimes >_>) if it wasn't for computer games I probably would have gone insane.

If anything I think they helped me take my mind off things and gave me a bit of relief from all that crap and thus actually helped me deal with school. That's just me though. I have 2 good degrees in History and IT.