How Much is Too Much?

Is there a parent out there who didn't gasp a little when it was recently announced that a new study found that children 8 to 18 spend an average of 7 hours and 38 minutes a day using recreational media? It sounds unbelievable, especially when you realize that "recreational media" means time spent on the computer, TV, mobile phone, iPod, handheld game, etc. for fun; time spent on the computer for homework is not included. The research, conducted by the Henry J. Kaiser Family foundation found that the time on entertainment media had increased over and hour and a quarter since 2004, with most of that increase due to more access to mobile media. According to the study, "Over the past 5 years, the percentage of students owning cellphones jumped from 39 to 66 percent. The share of students who own iPods or other MP3 players rose from 18% to 76%." (Education Week, 1/27/10) And due to multitasking, young people are actually packing 10 hours and 45 minutes of recreational media content into the 7 hours and 38 minutes! If my kids can be considered normal in this context, I can certainly attest to the fact that they tend to watch a show on Hulu.com in one corner of the screen and browse the web or play a game in another corner. Not surprisingly, the study found that heavy users reported a negative impact on grades. The shocking piece of this is that a heavy user is defined as consuming, on average, more than 16 hours a day of recreational media content! How is that even possible?

So what's a parent to do? How do we balance the need to develop media literacy with the tendency of young people to overdo it? Is it possible to effectively monitor and limit all this access to the recreational use of media? Is it really worse than all the TV I watched as a kid? The best answer probably lies in what most EFS parents are doing already: engage children in athletics, theater, music, and other outside activities; spend as much family time...unplugged family time...as possible; continue to encourage independent, leisure reading. Over the summer, I read a great book, The Dumbest Generation: How the Digital Age Stupefies Young Americans and Jeopardizes Our Future (Or, Don't Trust Anyone Under 30). This fascinating, research-based book posits that all this time spent plugged-in comes at the expense of leisure reading, and is resulting in the least literate, least informed, and most self-absorbed generation ever. While it doesn't necessarily provide THE answer for parents, along with this recent study, The Dumbest Generation provides a compelling and cautionary tale for parents and educators alike.