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New Study Shows Youth Plugged In Most of the Day
An anonymous reader writes "The amount of time youngsters are spending on the web has ballooned to exceed the average adult's full working week, according to a new study. A few years ago, the same researchers thought that teens and tweens were consuming about as much media as possible in the hours available. But now they've have found a way to pack in even more. Young people now devote an average of seven hours and 38 minutes to daily media use, or about 53 hours a week according to Kaiser Family Foundation findings released today."
The survey taker's school "doesn't use grades" for 0% of heavy users, 3% of medium users, and 10% of light users. This statistic by itself makes me unconvinced about the overall findings...do you mean to tell me that 0% of heavy internet users attend schools that don't give grades? What the hell is the sample size, anyway???
What concerns me most is that the next generation might spend more time reading about something and not have the time to actually DO them. I find the information overload very annoying already at work. Mostly emails. And I feel myself slowly being trained into ASKING for the info rather than experimenting and have your own observation in things.
Don't know how to put it in better words.
Although the article does contain some overtones of negativity, I think this quote does really present the key importance of the issue:
"When children are spending this much time doing anything, we need to understand how it's affecting them -- for good and bad," Drew Altman, president and chief executive of the foundation.
Here are my thoughts on each item:
TV 4:29 - Almost entirely negative, I suspect; surely the overwhelming advertisements alone cancel out any benefits the few educational shows.
Music/Audio 2:31 - As a musician, I have a hard time knocking this. Premature deafness from blasting those headphones is no good, though.
Computer 1:29 - As a computer scientist, well, let's just say I'm about 10x this. It can range from really good (research) to horrible (4chan).
Video Games 1:13 - I think this is a healthy dose. Games with physical activity and (gasp) sunlight are better, but this could be worse.
Print 0:38 - I'm surprised this number even exists. I assume the majority of it is beneficial in some ways -- exposure to articulating an idea in writing, if nothing else.
Movies 0:25 - Movies are usually a bit more thought provoking than TV. A slight negative here, but it's still a small number.
Overall, I do believe there is reason for concern, but not outright panic. Let the psychologists do their work and we will only understand the effects of this better.
A neutral communications medium is essential. It is the basis of science, by which humankind should decide what is true.
How is this news? In an average day, excluding the 7.5 hours I spend in front of a computer at work, I still manage to pack in a lot of "media"-time.
TV: 5
Music/Audio: 1.5 - 2
Computer: 7
Video Games: 1
Print: <1 - 2 (I do reading stints, where I consume much more, but on average..)
Movies: 0.3
Of course, my multitasking factor is probably higher than these lame kids'. Laptop is always on, always on the table in front of me so I can chat, surf, perhaps program a little. The TV is for the most part on as well, except that part of the evening where the most interesting program is Oprah. I read on the bus to and from work while listening to music, and naturally "TV Games" pretty much has to overlap 100% with either "Computer" or "TV" (disregarding portables, which I don't own).
News? Hardly.News to the Slashdot crowd..? Definitely not. Scaremongering for technophobic parents? Yes.