Presence of Media in America

In order to show the overwhelming presence of media in children’s lives, I have posted some statistics from research done. One study done in 2003 from the Kaiser Family Foundation documented it’s results from a nationally representative random digit dial survey of more than 1,000 parents of children ages six months through six years. According to the results from the study:


·         Children six and under spend an average about 2 hours a day with screen media


·         Two-thirds of zero to six year olds live in a home where the TV is on at least half the time or more, even if no one is watching, and one third live in home where the television is left on “always” or “most” of the time.


·         In a typical day, sixty-eight percent of all children under two use screen media (59% watch TV, 42% watch a video or DVD, 5% use a computer and 3% play video games) and these young children will spend an average of two hours in front of the screen


·         43% of all children under the age of two watch TV every day and one-quarter have a TV in their bedroom. Seventy-four percent of all infants and toddlers have watched TV before age two.

http://www.kff.org/entmedia/upload/Zero-to-Six-Electronic-Media-in-the-Lives-of-Infants-Toddlers-and-Preschoolers-PDF.pdf

The Kaiser Family Foundation also publicized a more recent report in 2010 about children’s and youth media stating that, “the amount of time spent with media increased by an hour and seventeen minutes a day over the past five years, from six hours and 21 minutes in 2004 to seven hours and thirty eight minutes today.” The report also documented these findings:


·         Two-thirds of young people say the TV is usually on during meals, and just under half say the TV is left on “most of the time” in their home even if no one is watching.


·         Children spend one hour and thirty minutes watching more TV in homes where it is left on most of the time, and an hour more among those with a TV in their room.


·         The amount of time spent watching regularly scheduled TV went down by 25 minutes a day from 2004 to 2009. But, the different ways to watch television which include: the internet, cellphones, and iPods actually led to an increase in total TV consumption from three hours and fifty one minutes a day to four hours and twenty nine minutes a day. 59% of children’s TV viewing comes from live TV on a TV set, and 41% is DVDs, online, or mobile.

Dr. Drew Altman, Ph.D., President and CEO of the Kaiser Family Foundation made an interesting comment on the media consumption. He stated, “The amount of time young people spend with media has grown to where it’s even more than a full-time work week. When children are spending this much time doing anything, we need to understand how it’s affecting them- for good and bad.”

http://www.kff.org/entmedia/entmedia012010nr.cfm

Survey

1. How much television on average do you watch in one day?
2. How much television on average do your children watch in one day?
3. What is the maximum amount of television you think is OK for your children to watch?

What is this blog about?

Being a mom of a five month old, I want to help her develop the normal way physically, socially, emotionally, and cognitively. So, I would like to post the most recent information/research regarding these areas of development so that it can raise a discussion and opinions about them. I think it would be fun for parents to add comments about what they have done or will do in the future to help their children's development. In these posts I will be de-emphasizing television watching and emphasizing parent interaction with their children.