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posted by cmn32480 on Tuesday August 09 2016, @05:12PM   Printer-friendly
from the we-always-knew-there-were-benefits dept.

Australian Broadcast Corp reports:

Research released from RMIT [Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology] University has found gaming helps boost results in maths, science and reading.

But researchers said scrolling through Facebook, Instagram or chat sites had the reverse effect, by hindering academic success in high school.
...
Associate Professor Posso used data from the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) to analyse the online habits of 12,000 Australian 15 year olds, which he then compared to their academic results.

He said the PISA data revealed that online gaming helped young people develop analytical and problem-solving skills.
...
Perhaps unsurprisingly, the study found spending hours on social media was mostly wasted time for teenagers, in terms of academic performance.

Australian teenagers who used Facebook or chat sites every day scored 20 points worse in maths than students who never used social media, the research said.


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  • (Score: 2) by krishnoid on Tuesday August 09 2016, @07:08PM

    by krishnoid (1156) on Tuesday August 09 2016, @07:08PM (#385913)

    Australian teenagers who used Facebook or chat sites every day scored 20 points worse in maths than students who never used social media, the research said.

    I wonder if they tested differently on their writing skills [xkcd.com]. I suspect that absorbing expository and conversational text written at various levels of skill would show a real improvement in reading and writing tests, not to mention the ability to identify moods and subtext.

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  • (Score: 1) by AthanasiusKircher on Wednesday August 10 2016, @05:37AM

    by AthanasiusKircher (5291) on Wednesday August 10 2016, @05:37AM (#386133) Journal

    I suspect that absorbing expository and conversational text written at various levels of skill would show a real improvement in reading and writing tests

    I think the key phrase is "at various levels of skill," and I'm not sure how many Facebook/chat sites involve written conversation "at various levels of skill." Obviously it likely depends on your friends. People who communicate via texts and short bursts of written communication may have an advantage of those who do none of that. But I wonder whether that actually translates directly to more "advanced" reading and writing abilities.

    The ability to comprehend a short conversation involving one-line replies is quite different from reading an extended essay, and the ability to write/speak a sentence of conversation is quite different from making an in-depth argument in writing. The nature of written communication today on social media effectively encourages short written bits of texts that substitute for casual oral communication. For a true analog to written communication and comprehension using modern tech, we might do better looking at kids who actually do more extensive writing -- whether blogging in complete paragraphs or even writing fanfic or something. I'd imagine those kids might actually have significantly better written and reading skills than average.

    • (Score: 2) by krishnoid on Wednesday August 10 2016, @08:08AM

      by krishnoid (1156) on Wednesday August 10 2016, @08:08AM (#386171)

      For a true analog to written communication and comprehension using modern tech, we might do better looking at kids who actually do more extensive writing

      I assumed that *everyone* would have a few social media contacts who'd write longer-form content like this, and they would regularly read such content from that handful of contacts. But in retrospect, I can't really substantiate that assumption on anything.