Daily Media Use Among Children

UNESCO Bangkok New and & Events: “Daily Media Use Among Children and Teens Up Dramatically From Five Years Ago. UNESCO, Bangkok Office. Retrieved July 27, 2010 from http://www.unescobkk.org/information/news-display/article/dailyu-media-use-among-children-and-teens-up-dramatically-from-five-years-ago

Kaiser Family Foundation conducted this large-scale study concerning media usage by 8-18 year-olds. The findings show large increases with media use from this age group. Simply speaking, this increase in media usage can be explained by the fact that 8-18 year-olds now have access to many forms of media 24 hours per day. Also, with the advent of new mobile media devices, teens can multi-task by using two media gadgets at the same time. With this age group cell cell phone ownership has increased from 39% to 66% , and ipod ownership has increased from 18% to 76%.

I find some of the information about media in the homes to be troubling. Less that 30% of the youth studied have rules governing media usage in the home. When there are rules concerning media use in the home, media usage drops by three hours per day. 64% of the youth stated that the TV is left on during meals. This speaks to lack of communication around the dinner table, and that is if the family eats around a dinner table and not in front of the TV with TV tables. 45% said that the TV is left on most of the time.

This study shows a gender gap concerning media usage. Girls spend more time using social networking, listening to music, and reading. Boys spend more time playing consol video games, computer games, and going to video websites like YouTube.