Teens: Media Consumption and Screen Time

The media-saturated world that surrounds your kids has made an indelible impact on them… thing is, nobody is quite sure just what that impact is. Has technology caused damage to kids’ ability to focus, to interact, and to relax without outside stimulation? Or has our tech-driven culture expanded opportunities, creativity, and taught new skills in ways we should be heralding? Experts aren’t sure… it’s that simple. Because it’s complicated.

Earlier this week the Kaiser Family Foundation released the third wave of a large national study about young people’s media use. Every day I hear parents express concerns about their teen’s media use; it seems to be the “hot-button” issue for parents today. The video below lays the problem out in black and white terms.

It will take some time to sort through the implications of the findings in the study and to process the issues it raises. In the meantime, parents who read this blog, our Facebook page, and are otherwise involved in our work and community want to know what to do. One thing stands out to me for those kids who are over-consuming media: Set limits. Parents need to understand you have an important role to play, particularly if your teen is not involved in a balance and range of activities.

While, as stated at the beginning of this post we don’t know that this level of media consumption is inherently bad, the study does share two important points:

Here’s some more relevant data:

And – catch this – this study did NOT take into account the amount of time kids spend TEXTING!

There have been many interesting stories in the press over the past several days as we are all absorbing this information. It is easy to jump to premature conclusions because the figures are rather shocking. But there is another point of view: many kids are involved in media in ways that truly expand their creativity, skills and even connection with others. Ann Collier at NetFamily News offers intelligent commentary and makes several important points to consider including this:

Probably since the beginning of modern-day-style adolescence, parents have had to adjust to unnerving new kinds and uses of media, but today’s media shift is an order of magnitude different: Not only is it mobile, multimedia, multidirectional, user-produced, one-to-many, many-to-many, and many-to-one; it’s all mixed up with traditional, professionally produced media in the same “place” – the Internet, via proliferating devices – and it’s social and behavioral (see “Youth, adults & the social-media shift”). It’s asking a lot of us adults, so there’s a strange need for both patience (with ourselves and each other as we adjust) and urgency (to hurry up and adjust!). There’s also a need to be alert to mass-media biases in what we read about youth and social media and open to the positive as well as negative implications.

Here are links to some other notable articles about the report:
If Your Kids are Awake, They are Probably Online – NYTimes

Kids’ Electronic Media Use Jumps to 53 Hours Per Week – USA Today

Kaiser Family Foundation – here’s a link to the the Full Report

And let me leave you with a question to ponder: How much media do you consume on a daily basis? I’m going to measure myself over the next few days, and make note of how I use my time. I invite you to comment here or to join the discussion on our Facebook page.

*”Heavy” users are the 21% of young people who consume more than 16 hours of media a day;
**”Light” users are the 17% of young people who consume less than 3 hours of media a day.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/20/education/20wired.html NY times article