TheSnowStorm Posted September 18, 2008 Share Posted September 18, 2008 Pew Internet: Teens, Video Games and Civics New Study on Teens, Video Games & Civics is Mostly Good News | GamePolitics http://www.gamepolitics.com/2008/09/17/cbs-news-video-games-might-actually-be-good-kids http://www.pewinternet.org/pdfs/PIP_Teens_Games_and_Civics_Report_FINAL.pdf New Study on Teens, Video Games & Civics is Mostly Good NewsSeptember 16, 2008 The Pew Internet & American Life Project has just released the results of the first-ever national, publicly available look at youth and video games. Teens, Video Games & Civics examines how and why games are played and details the relationship that gaming has to social and civic engagement among teens in the United States. In gathering their data, Pew conducted phone interviews with 12-17-year olds along with a parent. The results of the 75-page report are a fascinating glimpse into how video games fit into the lives of teens. Major conclusions include: * Almost all teens play games. * The most popular games played by teens today span a variety of genres and ratings. * Gaming is often a social experience for teens. * Close to half of teens who play online games do so with people they know in their offline lives. * Teens encounter both pro-social and anti-social behavior while gaming. * The most popular game genres include games with violent and nonviolent content. * Parental monitoring of game play varies. * There are civic dimensions to video game play. * The quantity of game play is not strongly related to teens’ interest or engagement in civic and political activity. * The characteristics of game play and the contexts in which teens play games are strongly related to teens’ interest and engagement in civic and political activities. * Playing games with others in person was related to civic and political outcomes, but playing with others online was not. * Civic gaming experiences are more equally distributed than many other civic learning opportunities. Pew notes that: Video gaming is pervasive in the lives of American teens... Opportunities for gaming are everywhere... When asked, half of all teens reported playing a video game “yesterday.” While racing, puzzle and sports games were determined to be the most popular, Pew found that two-thirds of American teens enjoyed action and adventure games, which may contain violent elements. A listing of teens' Top 10 most popular games was headed by Guitar Hero, Halo 3 and Madden. Grand Theft Auto was 8th. Pew also concluded that gaming is a social experience for teens and that parental monitoring varies. Surprisingly, only a small (13%) subset of parents said they believed that games had a harmful effect on their kids: * 90% of parents say they always or sometimes know what games their children play. * 72% say they always or sometimes check the ratings before their children are allowed to play a game. * Parents of teens who play games are generally neutral on the effect of games on their children, with nearly two-thirds believing that games have no impact one way or the other on their offspring. * 62% of parents of gamers say video games have no effect on their child one way or the other. * 19% of parents of gamers say video games have a positive influence on their child. * 13% of parents of gamers say video games have a negative influence on their child. * 5% of parents of gamers say gaming has some negative influence/some positive influence, but it depends on the game. Civic engagement was one of the main focal points of the study. Games, however, seemed to have a mostly neutral effect in this area, with much depending on the civic-mindedness of individual gamers: Neither the frequency of game play nor the amount of time young people spend playing games is significantly related to most of the civic and political outcomes that we examined—following politics, persuading others how to vote, contributing to charities, volunteering, or staying informed about politics and current events. There is little evidence to support the concern that playing video games promotes behaviors or attitudes that undermine civic commitments and behaviors. At the same time, there is little evidence to support the idea that playing video games, in general, is associated with a vibrant civic or political life. The frequency of gaming was related to only two civic and political outcomes—political interest and protesting—with differences only emerging between the highest and lowest frequency of game play. If you enjoy commenting on GamePolitics, the odds are that you are more aware of political and civic issues: Teens who take part in social interaction related to the game, such as commenting on websites or contributing to discussion boards, are more engaged civically and politically. GP: All in all, this is very positive news for gaming. Pew Internet gets it right when it comes to the pervasiveness and social elements of gaming. Moreover, parental responses show that games are perhaps not regarded as the "murder simulators" some critics would suggest. Get the full text of Teens, Video Games & Civics here... *Checks newspapers, turn on the cable news network* "Hmm, no snowballs in hell, it hasn't frozen over, nor has Jesus came back as of yet." So finally, a news media outlet dosen't show a biased report on video games! (Shoots myself in the head) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bleck Posted September 18, 2008 Share Posted September 18, 2008 Pew Internet Pew Pew pew pew lasers Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheSnowStorm Posted September 18, 2008 Author Share Posted September 18, 2008 Jew InternetJew Jew jew jew lasers JEW INTERNET! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kitty Posted September 18, 2008 Share Posted September 18, 2008 From what I gather this study is more like a survey modeled after self-report surveys for crime statistics, which isn't necessarily a bad thing. The problem with this is that it won't hit mainstream media because they didn't outright say "video games are crucial to teens' social learning of morals and values blah blah blah." What I liked about the study is that they focused on both console and PC gaming and the social consequences of both. What I didn't like is that they included Solitaire as a video game. They also concluded that in order from most to least of those "likely" to play video games were young boys, young girls, and older boys. I would have thought older boys would have been the top category, but I guess that's just frequency effect hitting me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheSnowStorm Posted September 18, 2008 Author Share Posted September 18, 2008 The problem with this is that it won't hit mainstream media because they didn't say video games are a negetive impact on our children and will cause harm towards them Fix'd . . .but I get what you saying due to the fact my fix was simular to your original statement. See, anything that is postive about teens and gaming will be ignore. Nobody wants to defend gaming, right? Right? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kitty Posted September 18, 2008 Share Posted September 18, 2008 Gaming is just our generation's scapegoat just as rock was when it was an emerging genre of music. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Airwalker Posted September 18, 2008 Share Posted September 18, 2008 Well, that's a relief. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LuketheXjesse Posted September 18, 2008 Share Posted September 18, 2008 Gaming is just our generation's scapegoat just as rock was when it was an emerging genre of music. The lawers need something to blame, after all Hell, I played GOLDENEYE when I was SIX YEARS OLD. Do you see me going on killing sprees? No. The most violent thing I've ever done was kick my grandmother's cats (hate 'em >_< She does too). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rem Posted September 18, 2008 Share Posted September 18, 2008 pssh these are all lies funded from BIG GAMING WoW kills Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheSnowStorm Posted September 18, 2008 Author Share Posted September 18, 2008 Gaming is just our generation's scapegoat just as rock was when it was an emerging genre of music. This is true. And you wanna know who's doing the scapegoating? Those who grew up and listened to rock 'n roll during the 50s and 60s. They must've forgotten how it felt to be scapegoated for the things they enjoy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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