Over Seven Hours!!

According to a survey by the Kaiser Family Foundation, the average teen spends more than 7 ½ hours per day consuming media. This is the average – which of course means many teens spend a lot more than 7 ½ hours, while many also spend less.

Wow. My students are in class six hours a day (I already subtracted passing periods and lunch time). An hour and a half less than the majority spend consuming media. Granted, some of that media consumption might be labeled as educational, but after chatting with my students and suggesting the possibility, they looked at me as if I’d suddenly started blabbing gibberish.

I guess I shouldn’t be surprised to learn teens are on their phones, computers, MP3 players, and tablets for such long periods of time. I shouldn’t be surprised.

But I am. I never really thought of it boiled down to an hour amount.

Then I got to thinking about the media habits of adults. Hmmm. Wonder what those statistics are. (TV, anyone?)

Equally as surprising, I’m sure. No doubt, equally disturbing.

I remember back to what my parents worried about when I was a teenager.

The horrid noise we called music . . . and the shocking lyrics that went with it.

Sigh.

Yes, there always will be something to be concerned about.

Now, if you’ll please excuse me for a sec . . . I promised my daughter I’d text. 

What about you? Do you think this statistic should cause alarm? Or do you think it’s no big deal? What are your media hours like? I’d love to hear!

And as always, thanks for stopping by!

Brenda

P.S. Along Came Jordan, which continues Emili’s story, comes out April 23rd!  Good, Clean, Teen Read.  Woo Hoo!