A new report found the average American teenager spends nine hours a day watching TV, playing video games, surfing the web, listening to music or texting using a few kind of electronic device.
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Common Sense Media’s next study, due out next year, is about the impact of digital addiction and distraction.
“Kids have been given a whole range of new options for media activities”.
The report finds that teens 12-17 spend 8 hours and 56 minutes per day with media, including 6 hours and 40 minutes of screen time. By distinction, forty five % reported utilizing social media each day and exclusively 36 % stated they loved that exercise “a lot”; twice as many stated they actually loved their music.
“It just shows you that these kids live in this massive 24/7 digital media technology world, and it’s shaping every aspect of their life”.
Common Sense Media conducted a survey of 2,658 young people between February 6 and March 9.
A new report has found that tweens between the age of 8 and 12 spend about six hours on average using media.
Most of this involves screen time – 4.5 hours for tweens and almost seven hours for teens.
“I think the bottom line there is it’s a utility now”, said Steyer referring to social media. They tended to view social media as more of a chore.
“The evidence from a few of my colleagues at Stanford and the Harvard (education) school is clear”. One concern: the quantity of kids who really feel snug multi-tasking whereas doing homework.
Ironically, all this tech could also be hurting the children’s ability to communicate, the report concludes.
“There is nothing better than face-to-face communication for understanding emotions and empathy and really being able to communicate with people”, Steyer said.
“If you’re constantly glued to your cell phone or your computer, then you’re not setting a very good example for your kid”, said James Steyer, Common Sense Media’s.
And that’s not including time spent using media for school or homework.
A few 62% of teen boys say they enjoy playing video games “a lot” versus 20% of girls. The average teen spends two more hours either reading or listening to music.
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There are socioeconomic and ethnic divides. Black teenagers consumed the most media each day, averaging more than 11 hours, while white teenagers average eight hours and 27 minutes of media time and Hispanic teens use media eight hours and 51 minutes per day. “But the truth is they feel they have to be there because their friends are”. Mobile devices account for 41% of all screen time for tweens and 46% for teens.
