Teens and Gaming--Some Good News!

I love the Pew Internet & American Life Project. They release some of the most interesting reports, and I especially appreciate the research they do regarding teens. One of their most recent reports (released last month) is "Teens, Video Games, and Civics" and it's got some interesting results.

According to the survey, 99% of teen guys and 94% of teen girls report playing games (we're talking electronic gaming here). That aspect of the report is not too surprising. What may be more surprising to the average adult is that these teens are not suffering from "social isolation" when they are gaming. 71% of teen gamers are playing with other people. Some of this interaction may be through online gaming with others (MMOG), but 65% of the teens surveyed specifically say they play games "with others in the same room." Could any of those teens be playing games AT THE LIBRARY with other teens there??

As a former Teen Specialist Librarian, I saw first-hand the benefits of sponsoring teen gaming events at the library. I saw how those teen flocked to the library in droves to socialize, play games, and yes--to check out books. Those same teens undertook the responsibility of overseeing the gaming events (setting up, monitoring, putting away), and they also volunteered for other activities at the library. They came up with creative teen programs as spin-offs from the gaming events.

So I wasn't too surprised by the Pew's report regarding teen gamers and civic activity: "The survey indicates that youth who have these kinds of civic gaming experiences (playing games that are about social issues or that involve decision making about leading a group) are more likely to be civically engaged in the offline world."

Click the link below to view the press release and to access the full report (all 76 pages of it!). Quotes in this post are from the following link as well:
http://www.pewinternet.org/PPF/r/263/report_display.asp