The more elaborate our means of communication, the less we communicate. J.Priestly
The NYT posted an article today (thanks JM for sharing) about how a recent study that kids between the ages 8 to 18 spend more than seven and a half hours a day (that is 53 hours a week)on media related devices (smart phone, TV, computer - you get the picture). And because of this groups apparent ability and innate need to multitask (and we wonder why so may kids are thought to have ADD), this number actually extrapolates to a whopping 11 hours a day!
Add in the hours in a day they can't use their devices; six school hours (that excludes lunch hour), and eight hours for sleeping - do the math - it adds up to 25 hours a day! So this age group would have to be texting or on FB or tweeting while they sleep to squeeze it all in. So where do home work, extracurricular activities and part time jobs fit into the mix? Man, no wonder kids today are so tired.
In our house this is not yet a reality. A bit on the stringent side of the coin, E&J get no screen time (defined as TV, computer, DS, PS3, Wii) during the week once breakfast has been consumed (TV before brekkie was reinstituted after we realised our youngest in definitely NOT a morning person and the world of difference - for the better - 15 minutes of TV makes to allow him to wake up a bit before having to interact with the rest of the world) or on weekends between breakfast and dinner. Be it good or bad, thems the rules. (Of course rules were meant to be broken and when G&I need to get something done a movie has been known to spontaneously start on the TV or the Wii/PS3 activated.)
Yes I know, the time is coming where this won't be the case, and we will have to ease up on the electronic lock down. But, for now, I am grateful that what is the daily average for kids in the Kaiser Family Foundation study, is more than our kids average weekly screen time total, and, for the most part, our kids are OK with that.
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