Study Shows Youths Who Spend More Time On Media Reports Lower Grades

A new study on the media in the lives of 8 to 18 year olds by Kaiser Family Foundation, shows a dramatic rise in the amount of time they spend using entertainment media. This is especially true amongst “minority youth”. The study is focused on the recreational usage of media amongst youth, not school-related online search or reading books for school.

The report released on Wednesday, January 20, 2010 showed that youths between the age of 8 to 18 year olds “devote an average of 7 hours and 38 minutes” daily which amounts up to more than 53 hours a week. In addition to that, they ‘media multitask’ which means using more than one medium at a time. Putting that into consideration, they wind up packing 10 hours and 45 minutes worth of media content into the above seven and a half hours.

Media Usage Over Time

Over the years from 1999 to 2009, media usage has increased from 6 hours 19 minutes a day to 7 hours 38 minutes a day. The only media that we see a decline in is print. However, it isn’t all that bad because book reading has remained study over the years from 21 minutes to 25 minutes a day. On the average, youths spend about 2 minutes a day reading magazines and newspapers online.

Media, Grades & Personal Contentment

Youths who spend more time with media report lower grades and lower levels of personal contentment. To add on, there was a report that found that student grades are not affected by social networking. The latter is true if only youths know how to manage their time properly using social media. As the data above pointed out, heavy media users tend to fall out in their grades compared to lighters users.

The data also showed that heavy users have more friends compared to their light users peers. However, that does not tally when it comes to personal contentment. The heavy users tend to be unhappy or sad and are more prone to get into trouble. What I am most worried about is the percentage of heavy users who are not getting along with their parents. My best bet would be that they prioritize their online and offline friends more than their parents.

Conclusion

This study clearly shows that there is a growing cause for concern that educators and parents need to address. Despite media being a bonus to the youths’ education, it is vital that they are used in moderation. The ever present danger of youths spending too much time in both passive and active media should be assessed by both parents and educators. Media “is neither inherently good nor inherently bad, but there is something worth noting in just the sheer amount of time kids spend with media and the sheer amount of media content that comes into their lives” said Rideout. I totally agree. What do you think?

Here’s a slide and video of the study’s data for your reference.