Growing Up WIRED

“The sheer amount of time young people spend using media–an average of nearly 6 1/2 hours a day–makes it plain that the potential of media to impact virtually every aspect of young people’s lives cannot be ignored.” Kaiser Family Foundation

ARE KIDS TODAY GROWING UP WIRED?

My name is Mary Pat Gallagher and I am the mother of five fully-WIRED adults (ages 31-23) and the “Lolly” of three yet-to-be WIRED grandchildren. My grandchildren are wee-little people who bring OH SUCH JOY to my life! Frankie is almost two and his little sisters, Ellie and Livie, will be two months old in mid-January. I’m making sure that all three stay away from electronic screens, per the recommendation of American Academy of Pediatrics, until they are two.  I must confess though, Frankie does occasionally watch PBS kids programs now and again, after all grandma used to work for PBS!

I am a career educator, having taught 23 years in a wide-variety of educational settings, including early childhood, elementary, and college environments. I am also a photographer and I ABSOLUTELY ADORE digital media and the convenience it offers. I can shoot a photograph and within minutes send a digital images to my children in Boston, Chicago, and New York, all with the click of my mouse! I must confess, I border on being an e-mail and Internet addict. But I was not raised “socially digitized” as children are today. I walked to school with friends, grew up sharing family meals around the kitchen table, played outside freely in the summer sunshine, and was not allowed to watch too much TV. I did not spend 81/2 hours of my day media-multitasking! Life is not the same in the 21st century for children and families. It is for this reason I share with you the following information. And please note, I share this information not to alarm you but to inform you, because many are simply not informed. Before reading my first paragraph, were you aware that the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that children under two not be exposed to electronic screens?

In November 1999 the Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF) released Kids & Media @ The New Millennium, which according to KFF is, “one of the most comprehensive national public studies ever conducted on young people’s media use.” This seminal study included 3,000 children and teens ages 2-18. The study reveled very significant findings on children’s media usage, habits, and trends. Two noteworthy findings I’d like to share with  you: On average children and teens, between the ages of 2-18, spend  5 1/2 hours using media, and school aged children 8-18 spend approximately  6 1/2 hours using media. In comparison, these same children spend only about 44 minutes per day reading.

In March 2005 the KFF, in partnership with Stanford University, published a second children and teen’s media usage study titled Generation M: Media in the Lives of 8-18 Year-olds (www.kkf.org). This study anonymously surveyed  2,032 3rd to 12th grade students (8-18 years) in their classrooms about their media usage habits. The KFF reported in a news release prior to the publication of Generation M that “Children and teens are spending an increasing amount of time using ‘new media‘ like computers, the Internet, and video games, without cutting back on the time they spend with ‘old media‘ like TV, print and music.”

The study’s executive summary explains that while “the abundance of media in children and teen’s lives has grown, the total amount of time kids spend with media–and the dominance of TV and music–have remained the same.” One very remarkable change from the 1999 study: while kids in ’03-’04 still consumed approximately the same number of hours of media they did five years previously, 6 1/2 hours, Generation M survey participants reported that they were using more than one medium at a time. For example,  a 15 year-old teen might be listening to music on her iPod, while she is instant messaging and doing Internet research for homework. Generation M participants are truly are growing up digitally WIRED and have become experts at media multitasking! At the time of the study’s release, Generation M children and teens were spending an average of 6 1/2 hours with electronic media per day. According to KFF, since they were using more than one media at a time, in effect they were exposed to 8 1/2 hours of media content per day.

Twenty first century children are growing up in a media rich, some would say media saturated, environment. This contemporary reality begs the question: How is growing up in the digital age affecting children and their development? Before I share my thoughts, I’d like to know what you think…