Young people spend more than 7 hours a day using entertainment media: study

January 21, 2009

Young people (8-18) devote an average of 7 hours and 38 minutes (7:38) to using entertainment media across a typical day (more than 53 hours a week), increasing by one hour and seventeen minutes a day over the past five years, according to a new study, Generation M2: Media in the Lives of 8- to 18-Year-Olds, designed and analyzed by the Kaiser Family Foundation and Stanford University researchers.

The increase in media use is driven in large part by ready access to mobile devices like cell phones and iPods. Young people now spend more time listening to music, playing games, and watching TV on their cell phones (a total of :49 daily) than they spend talking on them (:33).

TV remains the dominant type of media content consumed, at 4:29 a day, followed by music/audio at 2:31, computers at 1:29, video games at 1:13, print at :38, and movies at :25 a day. Top online activities include social networking (:22 a day), playing games (:17), and visiting video sites such as YouTube (:15).

About half of heavy media users say they usually get fair or poor grades (mostly Cs or lower), compared to about a quarter of light users.