97% of teens play videogames, remaining three are in comas

1:00 PM on 06.07.2009   |   Matthew Razak

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Did you know that videogames were kind of a big deal? Evidently they're immensely popular with teenagers these days. Those younguns don't know how the games will rot their brains and eat their souls so they play them. In fact, according to a Fall 2008 study on videogames and their civic influences conducted by PewResearch Center, 97 percent of teens play videogames of some sort (99 percent of boys and 94 percent of girls). Now, this of course means anything from Gears of War to Tetris on your phone, but it's still a big number.

Also according to the study, 50 percent of all teens have played a videogame in the past day and 86 percent of them played that game on a console while 73 percent play them on a computer. Even cell phone games have a strong showing with 48 percent. As for the main purpose of the research it turns out that your civic outcomes aren't affected by how much you play videogames, meaning no matter how much gaming you do you won't become a better person through quantity of games played.

However, one can become a better person by playing certain types of games. The study found that if you play games with others in the room you are apt to be more civic minded, whereas if you simply play online your inclinations are not as civic minded. So if you're looking to do good in the world gather some friends together and bust out the Wii Sports or Halo, evidently it will make you a better person.