Excellent article about newly published report on children's media use. A must read for all teachers and even more important for parents.
Highlights for me:
"And because so many of them are multitasking — say, surfing the Internet while listening to music — they pack on average nearly 11 hours of media content into that seven and a half hours."
“I feel like my days would be boring without it,” said Francisco Sepulveda, a 14-year-old Bronx eighth grader who uses his smart phone to surf the Web, watch videos, listen to music — and send or receive about 500 texts a day.
Dr. Michael Rich, a pediatrician at Children’s Hospital Boston who directs the Center on Media and Child Health, said that with media use so ubiquitous, it was time to stop arguing over whether it was good or bad and accept it as part of children’s environment, “like the air they breathe, the water they drink and the food they eat.”
The study could not say whether the media use causes problems, or, rather, whether troubled youths turn to heavy media use.
“I don’t think parents should feel totally disempowered,” she said. “They can still make rules, and it still makes a difference.”
The heaviest media users, the study found, are black and Hispanic youths and “tweens,” or those ages 11 to 14.
Even during the survey, media use was changing. (At the start of the survey period Twitter did not yet exist)
So what are the implications for us as teachers? For us as parents?
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