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What is meant by (school time) in the following context?

Many teenagers play video games from time to time. This activity can be entertaining as well as social; friends can have an enjoyable time gathering around the game. Playing video games may have additional benefits such as promoting one’s decision-making skills and improving one’s general wellbeing. However, some game players may separate from reality and get addicted to playing the games. You can tell who an addicted gamer is by observing his/her behaviour. Look out for signs that the person didn’t show before getting hooked to playing games such as wasting school time in order to play, becoming distant from friends and family, lacking enough hours of sleep and losing interest in other hobbies.

Does it mean (study time)?

Thank you.

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  • Every sentence you added makes sense to me. The original sentence does not. "...didn't show before getting hooked to playing games such as wasting school time" does not make sense. "Wasting school time" might mean truancy (not attending school) or it might mean playing games instead of studying. I just can't tell what the author intended!
    – Edward Barnard
    Sep 2, 2019 at 21:25
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    It's a badly crafted sentence, but I think I understand it. "Look out for signs [that the person didn't show before getting hooked to playing games], such as .... So "wasting school time" is an example of the signs. I think one of the reason why it is hard to parse it that in the phrase "show signs of" it is usual to treat the word "signs" as though it were an unanalysable abstract like "evidence", and not something that can be enumerated and individually described.
    – Colin Fine
    Sep 2, 2019 at 22:06
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    @Colin in a diagnostic context, "signs" is often followed by a list, as here: "The signs of diabetes are overeating, particularly of sweets, drinking lots of fluids, excessive urination, and poor sleep." In general "the signs of X" is often the into to a catalog.
    – David Siegel
    Sep 2, 2019 at 22:11
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    @DavidSiegel: yes, of course; but not when "signs" is the formal object of "show".
    – Colin Fine
    Sep 2, 2019 at 22:22

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I can't tell if the author means study time outside of school, or both -- either is possible.

There is not enough context here. "School time" can mean either the time one apends actually in school, or the time spent studying or otherwise preparing for school. The quoted text could apply to either of these.

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It most straightforwardly means the time a student is in school or is supposed to be in school.

So it's reasonable to assume that the writer means that a student is faking illness or skipping school to play games, or getting out of class and sitting in the library to play games, etc.

It's possible that they intended to include time outside of school normally or appropriately spent studying, etc., and it's hard to imagine, to me, why it would make much difference if they were thinking that way or not.

Also, you included wasting in what you bolded, but your question asks only what school time means. So, in case it helps, the idea is that this supposedly valuable time for learning is being wasted.

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