5 Myths About How tweens and teens Use Technology

A New study also reveals five surprising facts about kids and tech

According to a robust new study from Common Sense Media, we got to know that both tweens and teens are spending an inordinate amount of time on their screens as you are not assuming it. An average of four and half hours for tweens from 8 to 12 years of age and six and half hours for teens 13 to 18 years of age. On concord, those numbers hide a more complex image. One with some surprises and obvious truths.
The study seems in a wide range of media-related activities from old school faves just like listening and reading to the radio, through more recent arrivals. The arrivals such as using video chatting and social media. More than 2,600 kids are surveyed by using a large national sample.The people who do research asked the kids about what devices they used and how much time they spent on them? They also seem at how variation in wealth, race and gender were reflected in the consumption of media. They asked how the kids got their media ? And where they were most likely to turn for music or print or videos.
KIDS AND SCREENS

5 Truths and 5 Myths about what tweens (8 to 12) and teens (13 to 18) are doing with tech

Truth 1 :

Some teens just spend too much time on screens

Kids, particularly teens spend a lot of time each day looking at screens. One in five tweens is using more than six hours of screen media and 18% of teens are using more than 10 hours of screen media.

Not all these hours are consecutive, young people frequently double up screens. Watching TV on one and chatting with their friends on another.

Myth 1 :

This is the end of reading

While the average time spent reading in print or on screens per day was only half an hour. It’s still one of the survey participants favorite activities. Reading was the second most popular activity among all tweens and the third most popular among teens, similar to using social media.

Truth 2 :

Boys prefer video games, Girls prefer social media

The gender differences are large and they grow with age. Among boys, 71% of tweens enjoy playing video games twice when compared to tween girls. More than a quarter of teen boys list playing video games as their favourite media activity while just 2% of girls do. Teen girls, meanwhile spend about 40 minutes more a day with social media than boys do.

Myth 2 :

TV and Music have been muscled out

For tweens, TV is their top media activity. They enjoy it. The most and do it every day. For teens, music reigns but only about a third of young people get music from the radio. No one source dominates music although the biggest chunk of teens listens to it on their smartphones.

Truth 3 :

Teens use mobile media all the time

More than half of tweens contain tablet devices and two-thirds of teens have a smartphone. And they have got their heads buried in them a lot. Almost three hours a day for tweens and more than four hours a day for teens.

Myth 3 :

Teens have cut the cord

TV sets are still a very prominent feature in kids media diets. 47 % of tweens and 57% of teens have TV sets in their bedrooms.

Truth 4 :

Gamers don’t get out as much as other humans

Kids report spending an about an hour per day being active. For gamers, that average drops to 47 minutes. The lowest of any kind of media consumer. Social media users were the most active, clocking in at 1:13.

Myth 4 :

The digital revolution is making teens and tweens more creative than ever.

Nowadays kids are too busy consuming to be doing much producing. Tweens spend an average of five minutes and teens nine minutes per day making something with all those digital tools at their disposal whether it is music, writing or art.

Truth 5 :

There’s a digital divide that follows income differences

Among families whose income in less than $35,000 year, only 54% have a laptop in the home whereas 92% of families who make more than $100,000 a year have one. Just over half the low-income teens have smartphones while 78% of high-income teens do.

Myth 5 :

This means rich kids spend more time on media than poor kids

The lower the education level or income of a teen or tween’s parents, the more time he or she was likely to spend watching a screen. Also, African American kids watched screens for more of the day than white or Hispanic kids.