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Teenagers who frequently use PCs and internet services are more likely to plagiarise work and have impaired writing skills, a study claims.
According to research published by Cranfield School of Management, over a third of its surveyed respondents (each aged between 11-18) admitted that text shortcuts damaged the quality of their written English, particularly in terms of spelling.
The research was based on a sample of over 260 students from an anonymous secondary school in the UK.
“Our research shows that technology obsession hinders spelling skills, implicitly encourages plagiarism, and disrupts classroom learning,” claimed Andrew Kakabadse, the author of the report.
“Shockingly, a high proportion of teenagers [59.2%] admitted to inserting information straight from the internet into schoolwork, without actually reading or changing it,” he said.
“Almost a third deemed this as acceptable practice despite recognising that such behaviour is considered plagiarism.”
Kakabadse, a professor at Cranfield School of Management, added that the survey saw 60 per cent of its respondents admit to being addicted to the internet, and 50 per cent were addicted to their mobile phones.
