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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."
To click through and download the PDF :38 :25
TV 4:29
Music/Audio 2:31
Computer 1:29
Video Games 1:13
Print
Movies
With a 29% multitasking cut, so from 10:45 total it comes down to 7:38
Not really sure this is all that surprising to me, it's hard for me to feel alarmed over the print and music portions of the time.
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???
I don't really see how anyone could be surprised by this. As more media options become available and more convenient to access, it seems like a logical progression. Also, you're media consumption devices are more flexible, you can consume from more sources of media concurrently. Your cell phone can likely provide you with verbal communication, music, social networks, even movies and radio. And that's probably the simplest device at your disposal these days.
American Third Position
Finally, a real choice!
Amateurs.
Researchers have recently discovered gamblers like money, scholars spend lots of time reading and fishermen are often on boats.
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.
/. readers already know this. For 10 years i have almost always laughed at the fact we see it here before they, (The uninformed public) do.
Look at the network news and see the slide.
I'm here for the experience, not the Hyperbole.
No wonder they can't find time to spell properly.
Your typical teenager probably doesn't even use a pen, and the majority of their communication would be on a device with a built-in spell checker. IT is as though they go out of their way to spell like an idiot. Is it really that much more efficient to type "Im going 2 da park"?
As technology gets smarter, we as a society will be getting dumber. We are setting ourselves up to be completely pwnd by Skynet.
Do you or your partner snore? - Visit www.snoring.com.au
TV (pay channels): about 1 hour
Playstation: 1-2 hours
Computer (mostly web): 1-2 hours
MP3 & suchlike: less than 1 hour
Reading (overlaps with MP3, and includes homework): 2-4 hours
The Playstation games are nonviolent or relatively low violence (Afrika, LittleBigPlanet, a few Ratchet&Clank). Reading time does not include PC time. They also get 2-4 hours of outside playing or at various hobby activities. This is the routine that we have right now, based largely on the kids' preferences.
It seems that the kids in the survey don't have much time left over for hobbies or being outside, or even for reading books...
Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. - Voltaire
An individual spends a certain amount of time asleep, a certain amount at school or working (or housekeeping, or whatever), a certain amount eating, washing(!), travelling and all the other miscelleanea of living. Then they have some time spare - is that such a surprise?
All this study does is tell those people who believe studies what those individuals spend their time doing. Would you prefer they spend that time drinking, instead?
Oh yes, that thing about multi-tasking media. All that tells us is how unfulfilling sources like TV are - people don't actually *watch* it, they just have it on in the background (while doing something more interesting) just in case something worthy of their attention does happen. That's all TV is today - whatever age you are.
politicians are like babies' nappies: they should both be changed regularly and for the same reasons
Don't blame the children.
They are not the ones that decide to pay less on education and that ebonics or it's more recent equivalent is good enough.
We are paying more than we were 20 years ago yet children are doing worse in school.
The problem isn't with the money (maybe in some districts) but the way they teach kids now.
My daughter was not taught how to read using phonics, she was taught using "sight words." I asked the teacher she wasn't learning the multiplication table and the teacher said that it was not taught anymore because they prefered 'concepts.' As a result, my daughter does multiplication (not addition but multiplication!!!!) using her fingers. She reads well now due to the time I have spent with her but her writing is still terrible (but it looks pretty.)
Now I fully admit that I should have taken the time to have taught her myself instead of relying on the school system. But I do remember being taught these things when I went to school. And passing out a multiplication table or phonics sheet is not expensive.
Don't blame the teachers either.
A good administration would get rid of bad teachers.
A bad administration would harass good teachers and keep the bad ones.
Within limits, money is not the issue; however, shared vision is.
With that age difference I can't even dream of blaming you; Its mostly the fault of your friendly neighborhood teen. ;-)
Now they'll be too busy to get on my lawn!
My girlfriend is 12 years younger than me and it is true. She is getting plugged most of the day. Hey, can you blame me?
No, I wouldn't blame you, as long as you're the one plugging her.
not much, just being forced to manually insert line breaks into my comment
ROFLMAO
To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
When you see kids insisting on incorrect spelling/grammar online, it's not necessarily because the medium encourages bastardizing the language in every instance. It's a desire to cool by being anti-intellectual. In their minds, only a nerd and an adult takes out the times to make everything they type in informal settings 'perfect.' We even do it here in sophisticated places like Slashdot. When someone brings up or wants to enforce the subtle differences between affect and effect, we just hand-wave it, call them grammar Nazis, and move on. It's the same thing. So next time you feel like blindly criticizing the next generation, why not try holding that critical lens to yourself as well?
I am not surprised either. In fact, it is preparing them for the world outside of high-school. I am an adult in my mid 20s and I spend practically the whole day in front of media. I spend about 8 hours at work on a computer, i listen to music in my car when I go to and from work, and in the evening I watch tv. I spend probably 11 or 12 hours in front of media as an adult. The weekends are the only times where I spend very little of my time on media. According to that study, kids who spend a lot of time on media are generally stressed and depressed. I wonder if that is an cause for the media time consumption and not an affect. At least they will know how to use those things. It is practically required in the working class these days.
News at 11.
Really, what’s the point of turning the computer off when at home?
That would mean no music, no movies, no quick search on wikipedia or something, no way of seeing if friends are at home.
If you do not prefer to be alone and bored, but don’t want or can’t to drive to your friends, then the choice is obvious.
Doesn’t mean one also is alone and actually sits in front of the thing.
Any sufficiently advanced intelligence is indistinguishable from stupidity.
Nothing a kid does will be praised by adults. Every single generation was supposed to be the downfall of mankind, with their swinging hips, their rock and roll music, their spirographs and their sagging pants.
Have you considered that it is possible that we pay more than we ever did in the past, and yet schools wouldn't have money to buy paper? It is called too much money on overhead.
Don't get me wrong - I'm all for using technology in education. However, far too much money goes on toys that don't really get well-utilized. The cost of one computer would supply paper for an entire school. The problem with technology is that it is very expensive to maintain. It can be worth it if it is well-utilized, but if you just use it as a typewriter and to pull up the odd webpage it isn't worth having (at least not at school - in the home is a different matter).
To be worthwhile technology has to be well-integrated into the curriculum and deliver something that simply wasn't being delivered before.
I'm actually not going to join the chorus whining about teacher salaries. On average they are probably fine. The problem is that they're almost entirely based on seniority and there is a huge range - I'd make new teachers make only moderately less than retiring ones, and use a pay model more reminiscent of private enterprise. That will probably help to attract more qualified teachers.
The whole summer off bit seems really odd as well. Why exactly do we need to take two months or more off every year? Why not just have a continuous cycle? By all means fit in more outdoor activities and all that in the summer, but there is no reason that we have to take the time off.
There are a lot of reforms that could help fix schools, but the focus is too much on placating special interests and not providing eduction. I don't see that changing anytime soon...