Common Sense Media Analysis

"The Kaiser Family Foundation last year found that school-age kids spend an average of 7 1/2 hours a day in front of a television, a smartphone, or another digital device"(Rosen).

On average, people spend about twelve hours, half of the day, using a gadget, just at home! That does not even include the time spent on an electronic at school or work. In 1960, the average time spent on an electronic a day was five hours. This means that in just fifty-six years the average time spent on a gadget has increased by two and a half times, or two hundred and forty percent! If students are constantly on phones and laptops, they will never have time to do homework or truly learn the material taught in class.

Now of days all the little kids want to do is grab a phone or a tablet . Kids these days are getting an average of 7.5 hours of tv per day. Between 2011 and 2013 , children ages 8 and under doubled their useages of media devices. Younger children should be only allowed to watch 1-2 hours if that .

According to Twenge, the number of teens that go out with their friends has decreased by 40 percent compared to earlier generations. Twenge compares iGens to different generations such as Gen X (born between 1965 and early 1984), baby boomers (1946-1964) and Millennials (born around 1982-2002). Twenge emphasizes on the time teenagers spend on their phones. Social media plays a huge role in this. In accordance to Twenge, different forms of social media like Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat are what teenagers spend more time on. According to Twenge, the more time teens spend on smartphones the greater they are at risk for suicide, depression, and loneliness. Twenge also explains how teens are not receiving an adequate amount of sleep, many teens now sleep less than seven hours. Twenge concludes the article by sharing her own experience with her children and technology, she recommends parents to limit the time their children spend on phones. (59-65)

Now, it’s easy to point to kids and teenagers and say, “you kids and those smartphones!” However, if you go back you’ll notice that I didn’t specify an age group. While kids and teens ages 8 to 18 spend 6-9 hours a day in front of some kind of screen, “… just over an hour of that time (1:11) is spent on social media,” Jordan Shapiro of Forbes said. What’s interesting is that 18 to 34 year olds spend 3.8 hours per

A teen sends 2,000 text messages a month and spends 44 hours per week in front of a screen. (Tarish, 18) 94% of teens who have smartphones use them daily. (Tarish, 19) To much online communication can get in your way of making deep friendships. (Tarish, 18)

The second reason why technology is a bad influence on teenagers is that it takes up all of their free time. Today’s teens spend more than 7 1 / 2 hours a day consuming media — watching TV, listening to music, surfing the Web, social networking, and playing video games, according to a 2010 study of 8- to 18-year-olds conducted by the Kaiser Family Foundation. Teenagers feel that if they aren’t doing anything, they should be on their phones. It doesn’t even have to be that they aren’t doing anything, just the temptation of the phone can be enough for them to be on it. I see people all the time with their friends, and they still feel the need to be on their phones when they should be talking with their friends.

Edwards, Erika, and Maggie Fox. "Teens Spend 'Astounding' Nine Hours a Day in Front of Screens: Researchers." NBCNews.com. NBCUniversal News Group, 03 Nov. 2015. Web. 31 Aug. 2017.

In Homayoun's article, she cites a study done by Common Sense Media in 2016 which found that half of teenagers felt addicted to their smartphones, 78 percent checked their devices hourly, and 72 percent of teens felt pressured to respond immediately to social media messages, texts, or any kind of notification. Homayoun also cites another study done by Pew Research in 2015 which found that 74 percent of teenagers from 13- to 17-year-olds had smartphones and a quarter of them felt like they were online continuously.

While some young people utilize technology to create great content such as music, literature, or coding, it has created a budding effect of a generation that is obsessed with consumption. The truth is the majority of youth’s time has been excessively dedicated to passive activities like watching tv or online videos, gaming and scrolling through social media. According to Common Sense Media, when it’s summed up America’s youth is using an average of 6 hours of media daily, not counting for school or homework. That is a massive chunk stolen from a child’s day and the effects can be extremely damaging. It is leading the young generation of today to become overstimulated, over-scheduled and under pressure to perform both academically and beyond

and iPods has increased from 6.21 hours a day among 8-18 year olds to 7.38 hours a day over

One of the most well known arguements of our time is not a hard concept to grasp. From limiting the time infront of a screen, to completely disregaurding any possibe flaws with screen viewing, both sides of this debate have their pros and cons.

In this article “Teens and Technology 2013” by Pew Internet & American Life Project shows statistics between teens internet access and teen and tablet ownership. Now these days most teens are online. The article says, “Fully 95% of teens are online” (“Teens and Technology). Internet can be accessed through cellphones, tablets, and mobile devices(“Teens and Technology). The younger the age group, the more use of internet occurs. Pew Internet & American Life Project wanted to show facts and graphs on internet use for teens. The information could open people’s eyes and see how much teens are using the devices with internet.

In 2015, a survey by the Bureau of Labor, calculated what everyone 15 and older does on a regular basis. On an average day, more than half of them spent around 3 hours watching TV. Individuals age 75 and over spent more of their time watching TV, reading, and relaxing than individuals ages 15 to 19. Americans spend over an hour more per day online than doing other activities (“American Time Use Survey”).

According to Common Sense Media, “The average child spends nearly 45 hours a week immersed in media, almost three times the amount they spend time with their parents...In comparison, children spend an average of 30 hours in school” (Szabo).