Most young people have a cell phone and an iPod and nearly one third own a laptop computer. And a recent survey shows that the more media kids use, the less happy they tend to be.
An article in USA Today titled “Kids less happy as they’re more plugged into TV, music, Web?” reports that heavy media users (more than 16 hours of media content in a typical day) are more likely to have bad grades, more likely to be “often sad or unhappy,” less likely to get along well with their parents, and twice as likely to “get into trouble a lot.”
A key question still unanswered is whether consuming a lot of media makes children’s lives more troubled, or whether troubled kids simply consume more media.
Consider the following facts:
- Heavy media users (more than 16 hours/day) actually have the same or slightly more friends than lighter media users. With all this easily-accessible media, kids can retreat to their own little media world. However, my guess is that today is not much different than a decade ago when kids could also retreat into their bedrooms to listen to music. Today, many report that Facebook and cell phones make it easier to make and stay connected with friends.
- Heavy media users get about 15 minutes more exercise a day than lighter media users.
Maybe the take-away is that media use in and of itself is not inherently bad or good. It’s all about balancing face-to-face communication with relationships with a computer screen or text messages.
Is face-to-face communication inherently good? Do they feel that it is? Why or why not?
Is it possible to have a relationship with a computer screen? Who or what is it more likely that they have a relationship with? If you honestly feel that they are having relationships with objects rather than with the people these objects help them connect with, how likely is it that you are oblivious to who and what really matters to them?
If you and other parents are oblivious to what matters to your children, have different priorities from them, and in general want to push them to do things which make no sense to them and do not help them achieve any of their (long-term or short-term) goals, how likely is it that they will be dissatisfied with their face-to-face relationships with you and probably unhappy in general?
If they are unhappy with all the face-to-face relationships which are forced upon them and which they do not choose, how likely are they to “escape” by finding people who value them for who they are online, and things they can do to help others online?
If they are valued for who they are by people they meet on the Internet, and are able to help others and receive help, and be strengthened in their self-esteem and their social relationships from people they meet online, then which set of interactions is more “real” and valuable to them; the online ones where they can be themselves, or the face-to-face ones where people assume that they’re someone else and talk down to them?
Does anyone else think about these things?