Photo by Mads Boedker, Flickr
By Amy L. Hatch
A new study from the Kaiser Family Foundation finds that 24-hour access contributes to a drastic increase in the number of hours kids ages 8 to 18 spend engaged with entertainment media.
Researchers found that kids spend an average of seven hours and 38 minutes using entertainment media across a typical day — that’s more than 53 hours a week. Much of that time is spent “media multi-tasking,” the study reveals, which means that they manage to stuff 10 hours and 45 minutes worth of media consumption into those seven-and-a-half hours.
Here’s an eye-opening factoid: Research shows that most kids have no rules around media. Only three out of ten kids said they have parental limits on their media consumption. That includes TV, playing video games and using the computer.
Parents who do set rules see results — kids with any constraints at all consume nearly three hours less media per day than those who have no limits.
Oy to the vey. We see this in our household and this past weekend was a perfect example. Our daughter is just 5, but is already as media-savvy as I was at age 25. She got an eyeful of the social-media sensation “Farmville” from my mother-in-law and went to bed for the last three nights begging to fertilize someone’s crops.
We try to limit the amount of time she spends online (or using her various electronic gaming toys, I’m looking at you, Leapster), but it gets harder and harder. Both her father and I spend most a lot of our time on our laptops.
Can you say “role model?”
This weekend we finally cracked down and forced her to put all the devices away and play with her toys. Here’s the surprising outcome — she enjoyed herself. I know! Crazy, right?
Kids her age are using technology more and more in the classroom, too. I’m not sure how I feel about that. Some schools are already ditching cursive penmanship for keyboarding. What’s next? Swapping “Farmville” for earth science?
Technology and the media that goes with it makes our lives easier. I’m still not convinced that kids shouldn’t learn the lessons of the Web 1.0 world before they start working on Web 3.0.
Do you limit your child’s access to media and technology?
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January 21st, 2010 at 12:47 pm
As our daughter has gotten older, and we noticed that media affected her desire/ability to get to sleep among other things, we’ve instituted rules about when and how much she can play video games (only on weekends, with time limit) and watch TV (not well-defined). Exceptions are made for educational games and TV. We (do our best to) keep the TV off during meals and times when we could be spending time together as a family. Instead of TV, we often try to steer our kids to listen to music and dance instead of just sitting around staring at a box.
January 21st, 2010 at 1:08 pm
I wish computer use at the local libraries was more restricted. Now that my almost-five-year-old daughter has discovered the library computers, she doesn’t want to play with anything else. We try to set a limit with her, but I know she’d be more likely to comply if it was the librarian coming over to tell her her time was up!