Video game players 'not nerds'
Source: CNN
Roughly two-thirds of college students play video games, but the image of a nerdy guy who spends all day in a dimly lit room blowing up computer-generated bad guys is off base, according to a new study.
College gamers are not necessarily male -- or anti-social hermits. And while about a third of those surveyed admitted playing computer games during class, the games generally don't conflict with their studies, says the researcher who conducted the survey for the Pew Internet & American Life Project.
"It's not taking the place of studying; nor is it taking away from other activities," says researcher Steve Jones, chairman of communications department at the University of Illinois at Chicago. "What they seem to have done is incorporated gaming into a very multitask-oriented lifestyle."
In addition to the survey data, Jones drew his conclusion from observations he and fellow researchers made while watching students in college computer labs -- many of them writing papers, then taking short breaks to play computer games and send online messages to friends.
