The victimisation of video gamers continues… Poor gamers. First they say games make you violent and now they're saying they make you stupid. According to a new study, frequently playing computer games appears to reduce a teenager’s chances of going to university, while unsurprisingly, on the contrary reading enhances the likelihood.
Oxford University researchers tracked 17,000 people. Here's the results:
-16-year-olds who read books at least once a month were significantly more likely to be in a professional or managerial job at 33 than those who didn’t read books at all.
-For girls, there was a 39% probability (of a degree/successful career) for readers compared to a 25% for non readers. Boy readers had a 58% chance compared to a 48% chance for non-readers.
Mark Taylor, of Nuffield College, Oxford, who carried out the research, said that results said there was “something special” about reading for pleasure. But the studies started in the 1970s when video games were extremely primitive compared to now.
It's a pointless study in my opinion. You're either going to go to uni or you're not whether you play games or read books. It's a typical piece of Oxford elitist propaganda and this comes from someone who loves to read. Then again, I'd happily spend a few hours on BlackOps too.
The real problem for potential students is funding, not their library.
But for the sake of debate, what's your opinion? Do games make you less successful.