Teens are Plugged in but Tuned Out

A recent survey conducted by the Kaiser Family Foundation not only suggests that kids spend over 7 1/2 hours per day with electronic media, it also reveals the more media they use, the less happy young people tend to be.

Heavy media users tend to have bad grades, more likely to be often “often sad or unhappy”, less likely to get along well with their parents and twice as likely to “get into trouble a lot”.

The study indicated a heavy media user as being a child that consumes more than 16 hours of leisure-time media content in a given day. A light user consumes fewer than 3 hours.

The question becomes….does consuming a lot of media make children’s lives more troubled, or do troubled kids simply consume more media? The study indicates both.

The study found that many felt they had a lot of friends, exercised more than some and felt connected.

So what is the real answer about striking a happy balance.
The answer seems to be to make sure you still get face-to-face communication. You need to maintain relationships beyond a computer screen or text messaging.

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