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One of the most common complaints among baby-boomers and maybe even generation X is that teenagers today spend too much time in front of a computer or other electronic device, and their social skills are suffering. Is it possible that this perception is misguided? According to a recent study, it may very well be wrong altogether.

The AFP reported today on a study by the private, grant-making MacArthur Foundation that found that teenagers are actually learning important social and technical skills. How can it be possible that non-human, electronic devices could have anything to do with social skills?

“It might surprise parents to learn that it is not a waste of time for their teens to hang out online,” Mizuko Ito, lead author of the study, said in the AFP report. “There are myths about kids spending time online – that it is dangerous or making them lazy.

“But we found that spending time online is essential for young people to pick up the social and technical skills they need to be competent citizens in the digital age,” added Ito, a researcher at the University of California, Irvine.

To complete the study, researchers from the University of Southern California and the University of California, Berkley, interviewed more than 800 young people and their parents over three years. Teens were also observed on sites such as MySpace (News - Alert), Facebook and YouTube.

The study found that the American youth of today are developing important social and technical skills online, often in ways adults do not understand or value. The perceived value of online activity is impacted by a generation gap.

According to study findings, teen engagement with digital media is friendship-driven and interest-driven. These teenagers are navigating complex social and technical worlds by participating online and learning basic social and technical skills that they need to participate fully in contemporary society.

Youth are using online activities to create and navigate new forms of expression and rules for social behavior. As a result, these young people are acquiring new forms of technical and media literacy by exploring new interests, tinkering and messing around with new forms of media.

The study determined that young people are motivated to learn from their peers online with the Internet providing a new way to participate and interact with one another. The platform also allows these teens to interact beyond their local peer groups.

“Online spaces provide unprecedented opportunities for kids to expand their social worlds and engage in public life, whether that is connecting with peers over MySpace or Facebook (News - Alert), or publishing videos on YouTube,” Ito said in the AFP report. “Kids learn on the Internet in a self-directed way, by looking around for information they are interested in, or connecting with others who can help them. This is a big departure from how they are asked to learn in most schools, where the teacher is the expert and there is a fixed set of content to master.”

In addition to new literacy and technical skills, the study also found that young people are facing new challenges in how to manage their visibility and social relationships online. Such skills are becoming highly valued in the workplace and could give these teens a good start to communications savvy when entering the workforce.