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Hardcore gamers-unlikely University candidates ?

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After tracking 17,000 individuals born in 1970, Oxford University has released some rather interesting data concerning gamers and their prospects for the future. According to Nuffield College’s Mark Taylor, teenagers who frequently indulged in computer games at the cost of missing out on other activities like reading books, are less likely to attend a University in pursuit of a degree.

In fact, Taylor suggests that young gamers, who did not participate in additional activities which have direct academic application during their teenage years, reduced their chances of attending a University by a significant percentage. Amongst males the numbers fell from 24% to 19% and for females the figures dropped from 20% to 14%.

While the findings do not suggest that gamers were unlikely to find good jobs, the statistics propose that individuals who also indulged in the written word frequently during their adolescent years had a much better chance of getting good jobs as adults.

Taylor’s research proposes that females who read habitually at 16 had a 39% chance of moving into a professional or managerial position at the age of 33, as apposed to that of a 25% chance for those who did not. Additionally the study suggests that males who read regularly at 16 had a 58% chance of landing a professional or administrative position at 33, in contrast to that of a 48% chance for the fella’s whose extra curricular activities were mainly centered around gaming during their pubescent years.

Despite the fact that Taylor’s research highlights a direct correlation between practical academic extra-curricular activities and a successful career, he also found that none of the suggested activities like reading or playing in an orchestra attributed to a higher salary.

Furthermore, while Taylor suggests that communal extra-curricular activities might be more beneficial than playing video games, he admits that gaming has changed substantially over the years, saying “The main thing I would highlight, because this is the 1970 cohort, when they played video games in 1986, that’s not very many people. And the state of videogames in 1986 is nothing like it is now.”

Source: Guardian via CVG

Last Updated: April 18, 2011

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