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Captain Obvious: Gamers do less homework
Dale North07.27.08 - 8:30 AM 29 comments

Captain Obvious: Gamers do less homework screenshot
So it turns out that gamers do less homework than non-gamers? No sh*t, Sherlock. We needed a study to tell us this?

The Universities of Michigan and Texas-Austin studied 1,500 children ages 10-19 to find these unimaginable results. It turns out that young gamers spend 30 percent less time reading (books?) and 34 percent less time doing homework than the non-gaming students. I wonder what they're doing instead of their homework.

"Although gamers and non-gamers did not differ in the amount of time they spent interacting with family and friends, concerns regarding gamers' neglect of school responsibilities (reading and homework) are warranted," the researchers said.


Some other interesting facts from the study: over one-third of the group reported playing games, and about 80 percent of these were boys. These budding gamers played for about an hour on weekdays and 90 minutes on weekend days. Boys tended to spend more time playing than girls.

Wait, I think I see Captain Obvious circling around for a second flyby.

[via Science Daily, thanks Richard Blocker]

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MORE IN OUR Things gamers do SECTION

Latest comment by LoweSox |view all 29 comments
I've seen this data used elsewhere, and in equally skewed manner. Nobody ever mentions nor pays attention to what those percentages actually equate to: "On average, gamers played for an hour on......



dvddesign 's Avatar
dvddesign at 07/27/2007 08:36

I barely do any homework at all...

In fact, I'll never do homework again.

TAKE THAT MRS FRAUNHOFER!
bluemeep's Avatar
bluemeep at 07/27/2007 08:42

I used to receive approximately three hours worth of homework a night. If I hadn't spent as much time playing games as I had, I'd have gone absolutely stark from the stress.

Oddly, I find I read even less now that I have more time as an adult. I completely underestimated how much I read between classes, homeroom, lunch and while waiting to be picked up in the afternoon. Back then I'd polish off one of those 800 page fantasy megatomes in a week.
Nyteshade's Avatar
Nyteshade at 07/27/2007 09:02

I never did homework during middle and high school, I'd either fake it or take the hit. I test well so it was easy to keep decent grades while doing the least amount of work possible. It's all busy work anyway.

Oh and thanks too whoever wasted all the manpower, research, time and without a doubt hundreds of thousands of dollars to tell the most obvious of truths. Kids with a past-time that takes large amounts of time, do less homework...

The worst part of this is, I'm sure sports players do less homework, as does any student putting a major amount of time into something other than school homework.

But this will be another "notch in the belt" against letting kids play video games, which in turn reflects on the industry as a whole.

Topher Cantler's Avatar
Topher Cantler at 07/27/2007 09:03

+50 points to Mr. North.
Topher Cantler's Avatar
Topher Cantler at 07/27/2007 09:03

+50 points to Mr. North.
RICHARD BLOCKER's Avatar
RICHARD BLOCKER at 07/27/2007 09:07

Hey! That was my tip, North.
Professor Pew's Avatar
Professor Pew at 07/27/2007 09:12

And once again there is no causal relationship between time spent on games and time spent on homework. For example: let's say you are smart enough to need less time for homework, you may spend it on games instead? This leads to data that says you spend more time on games and less time on homework when compared to averages of 1500 people.

Still, I'd have to agree that gaming does often take time from homework ;)
Pyramid Head's Avatar
Pyramid Head at 07/27/2007 09:13

Only 1 hour a day? How can they expect to become pro... like me.
Topher Cantler's Avatar
Topher Cantler at 07/27/2007 09:15

Am I still double posting? o_O
Topher Cantler's Avatar
Topher Cantler at 07/27/2007 09:16

Am I still double posting? o_O
Topher Cantler's Avatar
Topher Cantler at 07/27/2007 09:16

GodDAMMIT.
Topher Cantler's Avatar
Topher Cantler at 07/27/2007 09:16

GodDAMMIT.
Snaileb 's Avatar
Snaileb at 07/27/2007 09:16

100 points for Mr.North? F*CK!
Topher Cantler's Avatar
Topher Cantler at 07/27/2007 09:17

My login has teh aids. ;___;
Topher Cantler's Avatar
Topher Cantler at 07/27/2007 09:17

My login has teh aids. ;___;
BigPopaGamer's Avatar
BigPopaGamer at 07/27/2007 09:48

Topher you are seriously cracking me up.

I would hope that you wouldn't have to spend thousands of dollars and hundreds of hours to do a survey to realize, "Hey, if kids play games they probably don't spend as much time doing things like school." No shit sherlock.
Dale North's Avatar
Dale North at 07/27/2007 10:41

richard...sorry I lost that email....and only had the link. I fixed it though.
Evil Cheese's Avatar
Evil Cheese at 07/27/2007 10:46

90 minutes on the weekends? N00bs! Yeah, the generalizations made from that study are faulty at best.

@Nyteshade: I found that when I was playing lacrosse in high school I did more homework and got better grades. I think it was because I had less time so I had to use it more efficiently. Also the whole "if you get more than two Ds you don't get to play" thing.
TheBrain's Avatar
TheBrain at 07/27/2007 10:58

Maybe we gamers are just too smart to need to study as much, eh?

*considers fanboys*


never mind.
Gamechamp's Avatar
Gamechamp at 07/27/2007 11:04

I'm pretty sure this story has already been done before.
phantomdata's Avatar
phantomdata at 07/27/2007 11:05

Or... perhaps... just... maybe... 33% of school-age children take 34% less time to do the homework that the other 60% take 100% the time to do. *gasp* 33%... more efficient... ZOMG THEY'RE STUPAD!

What boggles me about this study is that only 33% of the kids reported playing video games... where did they get these kids? Botswana?

(Too lazy to read article)
phantomdata's Avatar
phantomdata at 07/27/2007 11:07

*ahem* I notice that I did in fact go back to adjust for the 1/3 and forgot to adjust the 60% taking the full time. Whoops.
RICHARD BLOCKER's Avatar
RICHARD BLOCKER at 07/27/2007 11:08

Thanks Dale.
Myrmidon16's Avatar
Myrmidon16 at 07/27/2007 12:02

wat else r gamers playin video games in place of? they should do a study on how much sleep we get
Knives's Avatar
Knives at 07/27/2007 13:56

If the kid is failing and he plays 6 hours a day of games, then yeah, he should spend more time studying, but if he still gets, good/decent grades, then what is the problem?

Like some have said, this study could mean that gamers are smarter so they need less homework time or that kids are learning from games and thus it replaces HW to some extent.

(I also think this was posted before)
Knives's Avatar
Knives at 07/27/2007 13:56

If the kid is failing and he plays 6 hours a day of games, then yeah, he should spend more time studying, but if he still gets, good/decent grades, then what is the problem?

Like some have said, this study could mean that gamers are smarter so they need less homework time or that kids are learning from games and thus it replaces HW to some extent.

(I also think this was posted before)
stevenjazz787's Avatar
stevenjazz787 at 07/27/2007 14:03

How come they didn't discuss which group had higher grades on average?
LoweSox's Avatar
LoweSox at 07/27/2007 14:55

I've seen this data used elsewhere, and in equally skewed manner. Nobody ever mentions nor pays attention to what those percentages actually equate to:

"On average, gamers played for an hour on the weekdays and an hour and a half on the weekends. Compared with nongamers, adolescent gamers spent 30% less time reading and 34% less time doing homework" (Source: Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, where the study was published).

To be exact, ". . . boys spent an average of 58 minutes per day during the week and one hour 37 minutes on weekends playing video games, compared with girls who played for 44 minutes per day during the week and one hour and one minute on the weekends" (Any article on the internet about the study).

That means that during the week boys spent 41 minutes reading and 38 minutes studying, while girls spent 31 and 29, respectively. On the weekend (I'm guessing Sunday night), it was 68 minutes reading, 64 minutes studying for boys, and 43 minutes reading, 40 minutes studying for girls.

If my homework-deprived math is right, that's a difference of 13 MINUTES reading and 18 MINUTES studying for boys, and 15 MINUTES reading/21 MINUTES studying for girls.

These kids aren't reading or studying a lot anyway. And an hour a day doesn't exactly fall under the "hardcore" category.

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