Wednesday, January 20, 2010

Me Being A Cranky Old Man, haha.

"Youth are spending more time with nearly every form of media than ever, said a report released Wednesday by the Kaiser Family Foundation. They spend more hours on the computer, in front of television, playing video games, texting and listening to music than an adult spends full-time at work.

Youth spend more than 7 1/2 hours a day using electronic media, or more than 53 hours a week, the 10-year study says. "And because they spend so much of that time 'media multi- tasking' (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 7 hours."

Affirming parents' fears, the study showed those habits ripple throughout a youth's life. Those who were big media consumers were more likely than kids and teenagers who are only seldom in front of a screen to earn average or poor grades in school. Those who use more electronic media get in more trouble, and say they are often sad."

This doesn't surprise me. It does make me sad though. Even though I find myself addicted to media myself at times (I mean, here I am blogging and watching TV so I'm not being a snob here), I just worry about the way kids are being raised these days. Parents are basically letting their children be raised by the media. And when these kids are watching crap like MTV reality shows, sexting and blowing people up in video games every day, it's easy to understand how we're raising a generation of conscienceless, attention-craving, fame-seeking, overweight, sad, ignorant kids.

I loved staying out with my friends, biking around, swimming, sledding, going camping with my family, eating dinner at the table each night with them, and reading. There was no internet, I didn't play video games, didn't have a cell phone, and you know what? I really liked my childhood. I worry about how hard it must be to keep kids off all of this media. Sure, I watched TV and we went to movies. But there are so many ways for kids to not communicate face to face with people now. And it does affect them. And it is a bad thing. Technology is supposed to make our lives easier. But I think in many ways it makes it more complicated.

Don't get me wrong, I walked through old shacks from the late 1800s in Florida earlier this month and I thanked the Lord I didn't grow up then. But I do think there is a balance... and I honestly wouldn't want to be a kid growing up now either.

Posted by soft rock star at 11:14 PM