January 2010
Are your kids awake? They’re online.
Study shows youth spend virtually every waking minute there.
“The average young American now spends practically every waking minute — except for the time in school — using a smart phone, computer, television or other electronic device, according to a new study from the Kaiser Family Foundation.”
-Tamar Lewin from the New York Times
The amount of hours that youths are devoting on the aforementioned electronic medium in 2009 have increased at a rate more rapidly than researchers had anticipate from a study in 2004. While the average media user spends about 2 to 3 hours consuming media through an electronic device, the heaviest media users are reported to consume more than 16 hours a day.
Lewin indicates that “the study could not say whether the media use causes problems, or, rather, whether troubled youths turn to heavy media use.” Nevertheless, a correlation exists between heavy media consumers and lower grades, and behavior problems.
Are kids spending too much time “plugged in”?
Let us know what you think by sending us an email to nw-arm@gonzaga.edu.
The full text of the article can be viewed at:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/20/education/20wired.html
The full text of the study can be viewed at:
http://www.kff.org/entmedia/mh012010pkg.cfm
The full report of Enhancing Child Safety and Online Technologies can be viewed at: