Official Explanation

Analysis

Read the question stem first and identify the question as an assumption question. When you read the argument on an assumption question, your goal is to find the premise and the conclusion. You should note these down on your scratch paper, like so:

Premise: The hours spent communicating over a computer are hours in which children are not interacting with other people on a face-to-face basis.

Conclusion: The increasing use of electronic mail and instant messaging has had a detrimental effect on children’s social development.

Once you have found the conclusion and the premise, your goal is to try to figure out, in your own words, what the necessary assumption is. Remember, the assumption links the conclusion and the premise together. In this case, you need to find a link between the author’s claim that electronic communication is “detrimental” to a child’s social development and the premise that time spent on the computer detracts from time spent “interacting with other people on a face to-face basis.” So you should look for an answer choice that states something along the lines of “interacting with other people on a face-to-face basis is a necessary part of social development.” It is important that you always try to generate your own answer before looking at the answer choices provided. Otherwise, you’ll have to rely on the GMAT’s answer choices and as you know from your work on Reading Comprehension, the wrong answers are designed to distract you from the best answer. If you come up with your own answer first, it’s easier to discard wrong answers and avoid traps.

Now go to the answer choices. Choice A is not very close to what you’re looking for. In fact, it’s not relevant to the argument at all. This argument is trying to argue that using the computer to communicate harms a child’s social development, so other activities that a child may or may not engage in are not the issue.

Choice B is also irrelevant. The assumption should bring together the premise and the conclusion. All this choice does is tell you that a lot of children prefer to use the computer to communicate. It has nothing to do with the social development part of the argument.

However, choice C is exactly what you need. It links the two parts of the argument together and provides the necessary connection between the premise and the conclusion. Even though choice C is good, you should still look at the other choices to verify that C is in fact the best answer.

Choice D is not an assumption of the argument. It details how social skills are acquired, but doesn’t address the connection between electronic communication and harm to a child’s social development. Nor is choice E relevant to the argument. The other benefits or costs of electronic communication are not part of the argument. So in fact, choice C is the best answer.

Answer: C