The semester break began this week, which means that millions of children across the Kingdom are away from their studies having fun. If that fun were outdoors, playing football or camping in the desert, the semester break would be highly beneficial to our youngsters. But besides sleeping late and crawling through the malls, our young people are at home watching television, playing video games, surfing the Net, listening to music and talking on the phone. A new study suggests that the heavy media use can have serious downsides.
Research from the Kaiser Family Foundation revealed that in the United States, 8-18 year-olds devote an average of 7 hours and 38 minutes to using entertainment media across a typical day or more than 53 hours a week. And because they spend so much of that time “media multitasking” — using more than one medium at a time — they actually manage to pack a total of 10 hours and 45 minutes worth of media content into those 71/2 hours.
“Generation M2: Media in the Lives of 8- to 18-Year-Olds” is the third in a series of large-scale, nationally representative surveys by the Foundation about young people’s media use. It includes data from all three waves of the study (1999, 2004, and 2009). The study found that the increase in media use is driven in large part by ready access to mobile devices such as cell phones and iPods. This increase in media use is out control because parents do not set rules for media consumption. Only about three in 10 young people surveyed said that they have rules about how much time they can spend using digital devices.
While the study did not aim to establish a relationship between media use and academic performance, there are clear differences between heavy and light media users in this regard. About half of heavy media users said that they usually scored just fair or poor grades, compared to about a quarter of light media users. The heaviest media users were also more likely than the lightest users to report that they were bored or sad, or that they got into trouble, did not get along well with their parents and were not happy at school. Heavy users consume more than 16 hours of media a day, and light users are young people who consume less than 3 hours of media daily. The Kaiser Family Foundation emphasized that more research is needed to establish a definitive cause and effect relationship.
Arab News discussed the study with Dr. Peter Tesler, Medical Director & Pediatric Service Line Chief — Manhattan’s Physician Group. Dr. Tesler is also assistant clinical professor of pediatrics, Columbia University College of Physicians & Surgeons and he has a master’s degree in public health from Boston University.
Dr. Tesler was surprised at both the volume of media use and also the element of multitasking highlighted by the study. He explained that 20 years ago parents were most concerned about over exposure to television. Now students are potentially doing two or three things at once, so the total exposure and the concentration of exposure have significantly and dramatically increased.
“All of it is troubling,” he remarked.
According to Dr. Tesler, parents need to know what their children are doing in regards to media use. That means understanding the capability of the digital devices their children are using, how much they are using those devices, and exactly what they are doing with them.
“A lot of parents really are not paying attention to what their children are doing, especially in regards to the Internet,” he said. “Where are kids going on the Internet and what are they putting out there? Parents would be very unhappy to learn about the personal information and photographs that their children are posting at sites such as Facebook.”
The physician explained that two decades ago he would speak to parents and children about the negative effect of too much television combined with too little exercise. Now he feels that because media use takes up about 25 percent of children’s time and can have undesirable consequences, it is essential to address its impacts with the families in his medical practice during their office visits. Dr. Tesler emphasized that exercise, whether indoor or outdoor, should be a part of a child’s life. He also believes that daily reading is essential for young people’s mental development. This reading should be a recreational activity removed from schoolwork and the time a student spends reading should increase to at least 45 minutes daily in the teenage years.
“Parents have to impose limits on media use. The rule of ‘too much of anything is probably not a good thing,’ is applicable here. Parents need to decide on an individual basis how much media use is right for their child and supervise that use,” advised Dr. Tesler.
Once the TV is turned off or the Internet is disconnected, children must be offered good options for how they can use their time. Going to a taekwondo class, playing a board game as a family or even doing chores are all possible ways that children can spend their time away from media.
“If students come home from school at one o’clock in the afternoon and go to sleep at nine and they are spending most of those eight hours with media, that’s probably not the healthiest situation,” said Dr. Tesler. “Parents should consider too, that aside from the Kaiser study, there are other studies that point to a correlation between increased television watching and obesity. Increased television viewing, leads to increased snacking and less activity. Obesity is an epidemic. Just because kids are quiet in their rooms, it’s not a good thing.”
Parents have the power to provide youngsters with guidance on media use. Those who chose to be involved in controlling media resources can help their children have healthy, happy lives.
