Parents generally believe that their children should be studying and not wasting time on gadgets like iPods and iPhones. 'Stop updating your FaceBook profile and do your math', is their common refrain. 

Youngsters, who have always believed that updating their social networking profile is more important that math, may have a point after all. A study lead by Mizuko Ito called, 'Living and Learning with New Media: Summary of Findings from the Digital Youth Project' says that time spent online is important for youngsters. 

There are a hundred studies and often one study says something that is diametrically opposite when compared to another study. So, why should we believe this study? 

Smart logic

The study, supported by the John D and Catherine T MacArthur Foundation's $50-million digital media and learning initiative, points out that social networking, gadgets, and other things that are so "in" these days are crucial for youngsters because they teach them how to stay connected in the digital age. 

Acknowledging the disconnect in this regard between parents and children, the study reveals that adults usually assume that children are just wasting their time online, while youngsters think otherwise. 

"Although we do not believe that youth hold all the answers, we feel that it is crucial to listen carefully to them and learn from their experiences of growing up in a changing media ecology," said one of the researchers. 

Colleges that woo students with promises of a Net connection may find the study interesting because it reveals that sporadic, monitored access at schools and libraries may provide sufficient access for basic information seeking, but is insufficient for the immersed kind of social engagements with networked publics that are becoming a baseline for participation on both the interest-driven and the friendship-driven sites. 

Good peer pressure 

To an extent, the new world order is turning the concept of peer pressure on its head. In the old days, peer pressure was an ugly word that implied naughty kids subverting nice ones, but today, youth do what their friends do, especially online. They prefer to learn from their peers and not from their parents and teachers, who belong to a different generation. This is sometimes perceived as rebellious behaviour. 

Does this mean that parents should let their children do what they please? Not at all. As the study points out, adults can have a tremendous influence in setting learning goals, particularly on the interest-driven side, where adult hobbyists function as role models and more experienced peers. 

But they need to understand that all study and no social networking makes life a drag.