Contrary to most expectations, it does not appear that spending time with media takes away from the time children spend in other pursuits; in fact, it seems that those young people who spend the most time using media are also those whose lives are the most full with family, friends, sports, and other interests. (p. 14, “Executive Summary”)
Generation M: Media in the Lives of 8-18 Year-olds is a Kaiser Family Foundation study of the media consumption habits of teens. They conclude that teens have unprecendented access, that they are watching media simultaneously (which is why you can’t sum the hours), and that it may not be affecting traditional media consumption like TV, music and reading. The study has thorough information on computer use, including game console use.
A national Kaiser Family Foundation survey found children and teens are spending an increasing amount of time using ìnew mediaî like computers, the Internet and video games, without cutting back on the time they spend with ìoldî media like TV, print and music. Instead, because of the amount of time they spend using more than one medium at a time (for example, going online while watching TV), theyíre managing to pack increasing amounts of media content into the same amount of time each day.
The study, Generation M: Media in the Lives of 8-18 Year-olds, examined media use among a nationally representative sample of more than 2,000 3rd through 12th graders who completed detailed questionnaires, including nearly 700 self-selected participants who also maintained seven-day media diaries.
Some other key findings:
Older teens spend more time listening to music and using the computer, while their video game-playing and TV-watching goes down. Boys spend more than twice as much time playing video games as girls do, while girls listen to more music than boys. And African American youth spend far more time watching TV, going to movies, and playing video games than White youth do. (p. 16, “Executive Summary)
About a quarter (26%) of the time young people are using one medium, theyíre doing something else media-related at the same time (such as listening to music while using the computer, or watching TV while reading a magazine).Homework has also become a magnet for multitasking, with many young people failing to devote the kind of single-minded attention for which their teachers might
hope. (p. 23, “Executive Summary”)This generation is largely happy and well-adjusted, but those who are least content or get the poorest grades spend more time with video games and less time reading than their peers. (p. 24, “Executive Summary”)
Nearly all young people have used a computer (98%) and gone online (96%). They spend an average of just over one hour each day using a computer outside of schoolwork (1:02), including about 0:48 online. In a typical day, just over half (54%) of all young people use a computer for recreation (compared to 85% who listen to music and 81% who watch TV.
… Nearly one-third (31%) have a computer in their bedroom, and one in five
(20%) have an Internet connection there. (p. 30, “Executive Summary”)More than eight in ten (83%) young people have a video game console at home, and a majority (56%) have two or more. About half (49%) have one in their bedroom, and just over half (55%) have a handheld video game player. (p. 36, “Executive Summary”)