Online gamers, rejoice! Research from the geeks at Australia’s Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT) has found that online gaming helps kids in boosting their school scores. How about Pokémon Go? Not an “online game”? Oh well.
Researchers also peeked into other time-wasting things to do online and found out that social media sites, like Facebook and Instagram, had the opposite effect on kids’ grades, making them worse. Oh noes, not Facebook!
Associate Professor Alberto Posso from RMIT’s School of Economics, Finance and Marketing (and everything else, at this rate) said that online gaming is a more constructive use of time for teens than social media lounging.
“Kids that are spending more time on online gaming — for example in a maths test — they’re likely to score 17 points above the average, which is about 4 percent above the average test score,” he said. Hey, 4%, is good enough for us!
The good professor used data from the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) to analyze the online habits of 12,000 Australian 15-year-olds, which he then compared to their academic performance in school. He said the PISA data revealed that online gaming helped teens develop analytical and problem-solving skills.
“Some psychologists have argued that massive online player games can be beneficial to cognitive development,” he added.
The study also discovered that Australian teenagers who used Facebook or chat sites every day scored 20 points worse in maths than students who never used social media. That’s not good for Facebook-loving teens. Not good at all.
“You’re not really going to solve problems using Facebook,” Professor Posso said. No surprise there.
The good professor remarked: “When you play online games, you’re solving puzzles to move to the next level and that involves using some of the general knowledge and skills in maths, reading and science that you’ve been taught during the day.”
Great news! Now, online gamers will have a new excuse for their angry parents as to why they’re playing Dota 2 during study time. “Ma, online gaming helps me study! Research says so!” As always, keep things in moderation, kids.
In other online gaming related news, here’s a big shout-out to Philippine Dota 2 contingent TNC for bagging a win over prime contenders OG at the 2016 International Dota 2 Championships. Congratulations, and go for gold, guys!
