Teen Media Consumption Soars to Almost 8 Hours/Day

If you feel your child is glued to video games, television or the Internet, chances are you're right – and you're not alone.
An updated study released Wednesday by the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation found that children average 7.5 hours of media consumption per day, an a increase of almost two hours and fifteen minutes in five years. When multitasking – consuming more than one form of media at the same time – is taken into effect, the total jumped to 10 hours and 45 minutes, the Foundation found.


"How can we promote a healthy balance in kids' lives, between media and other important activities, whether it's spending time outdoors, or just spending time talking face-to-face with your parents?" Victoria Rideout, the Foundation's vice president and director of the study, said during a Webcast press conference on Wednesday.
The study has implications for several aspects of popular culture, she said, including whether or not kids' aptitude for multitasking was actually beneficial in a work world, and whether or not advertising guidelines for targeting children and teenagers needed to be adjusted.
The study was based on a survey of 2,002 students ranging from third through twelfth grade, ages 8 to 18, and conducted from Oct. 2008 through May 7, 2009. A subsample of 702 students also provided a more detailed look at media consumption through a media diary they kept. The surveys were conducted over a 40-minute period in the classroom.
What the survey found was that heavy media users not only self-reported lower grades then self-described "light" users, but that they also reported being less happy as well. For example, 51 percent of heavy media users reported that they received A's and B's in school, compared to 66 percent of light users. Thirty-two percent of heavy media users reported that they were often sad or unhappy, versus 22 percent of light media users. Not surprisingly, those that lived in households where parents attempted to limit media consumption consumed less media.
"My method is, I don't study, I just pay attention in class, as hard as I can. Studying is just wasting Xbox time," said one of the study's respondents interviewed on camera.
And what media are kids consuming? Overall, kids watched an average of 4 hours and 29 minutes of television per day, followed by 2 hours and 31 minutes of music. Computer time accounted for just under an hour and a half, with video games averaging 1 hour and 13 minutes per day. Print consumption and movies consumed 38 minutes and 25 minutes, respectively.
"It abosolutely rings true," Stephen Friedman, the general manager of MTV," said during a panel discussion following a press conference on Tuesday in Washington D.C. "We talk to our viewers every day, and this audience was raised connected, they're the chief technology officers of their family, their parents go to them to figure things out, and that really impacts everything we do, as they consume media differently."
In total, media consumption peaked at ages 11 to 14. Black and Hispanic students, however, reported that they spent far more time consuming media – an additional three and a half hours per day – then white students, for a total of about 13 hours per day.
But are kids couch pototoes as well? According to the Kaiser report, no – in fact, the kids reported spending an hour and 45 minutes engaged in some form of physical activity, including sports, dance, or going to the gym. Five years ago, the students reported spending just under an hour and a half in exercise.