In Generation M2: Media in the lives of 8- to 18-year-olds, the findings that children spend about 7.5 hours each day with media are shocking to me. Whatever happened to playing outside? I knew the number would be high, but I did not think it would be quite as bad. I was also surprised by the large discrepancy between the media usage of Hispanic and Black children and that of Caucasian children. All the multitasking that children are doing today causes them to miss out on living in the present. It seems similar to a zombie-like existence to me.
I believe that conducting a study on the media usage of 3rd graders to freshmen in college is a very broad age range. At the end of the Key Findings section, I was pleased to see a chart of media usage that splits the ages into smaller, more appropriate ranges.
About 93% of heavy media users say they have a lot of friends, compared to 91% for medium and light users. I cannot help but wonder about their definition of friendship. Are these children referring to actual friends or Facebook friends?
It was a relief to read that the time young people spend reading books has slightly increased over the past ten years. This was not surprising to me because of the popularity of such books as Harry Potter and Twilight. However, newspaper and magazine reading has declined over the years, which I believe may be the result of people reading that content on the Internet.
Based on these findings, it seems teachers must have classrooms full of many inactive and easily distracted children. I believe teachers need to work even harder to keep the attention of their students. In addition, teachers and parents need to encourage children (especially heavy media users) to focus more on academics outside of the classroom instead of spending hours in front of the TV and computer.
I completely agree with your last paragraph. It is hard to monitor the students, especially when you have a huge class. I do agree and as a teacher I have found that we must have more controlled assignments for the internet because if not, the students will find a way to access things on the internet that they shouldn't. That is why things like web quests and virtual field trips play a part. It is very imperative that teachers monitor otherwise the students will do things they have no business doing
ReplyDeleteMelissa,
ReplyDeleteI have worked with fifth graders and I am always surprised to know how many have televisions in his/her room, own cell phones (Blackberry), and time consumed watching television or playing video games. I think this information is depressing, because too much time is spent on using all these various media technology and not enough time is spent being outside, reading books, and spending time with family. Parents need to be monitoring the amount of time that should be spent using all these various technologies. Hopefully, parents will become more educated about these issues and changes will be made in these studies.
I found the #'s on minority electronic media use very surprising. The fact that Hispanics and Afro-American males usage times is so much higher than Caucasians doesn't make sense to me. It really spurs my curiosity as to why that is and how it is possible. I guess I just figured the white kids in the suburbs with all the resources would spend more time on electronic media because they could afford more of it. Is it because more affluent parents limit the time their kids can use the devices? Is it simply because the parents talk to the kids about the negative ramifications of having your face in a screen all day? Is it because they can afford to do other things with their time where as low socio-economic households use what they have more because they cannot afford to go to Great America, or sports camp for example? It is also amazing to me that low socio-economic households may not be as nice as their counterparts but they always seem to have the large flat screen television, a video game system, and cellphones or blackberries. I would be curious to know what percentage of incomes are spent on electronic media in different socio-economic areas?
ReplyDeleteI think you make good points. In my experience, teachers do have many inattentive and easily bored students. I posted this in some other comments, but you may be interested in the work of Richard Louv (Last Child in the Woods, "No Child Left Inside").
ReplyDeleteBearsgottawin's questions are good ones. Part of the answer is that cellphones and mp3 players are so cheap now.
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