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OVEREXPOSED GENERATION M:

Children of the New Media

By Amy Bentley Published: August, 2005

To any parent who doesn’t believe that media exposure or overexposure can make a huge impression on even the youngest of children, consider the recent experience that the Mulvaine Family in Anaheim Hills had with their 3-year-old.

Like many kids of all ages, Sean likes to play computer and video games, and one video game he played quite a lot was “Voodoo Vince,” a madcap adventure game about a tattered voodoo doll. One night, little Sean woke up screaming and his parents came running into his room. “He had a nightmare and woke up, and started talking about the characters of ‘Voodoo Vince’, and tigers in the back yard,” recalls Sean’s dad, Ric Mulvaine, a 35-year-old engineer and self-described “techie” who works from home.

The nightmare episode spooked the Mulvaines so much that they decided right then and there to cut back their son’s computer game time to weekends only.

“ The problem is obsessiveness, because it’s so attractive,” Ric Mulvaine says.

He vowed that his son would never have his own computer in his bedroom “until he’s out of the house,” and that Sean wouldn’t get a television set in his room either until he was at least a teenager. “It’s too much of a distraction.”

Too much media

Many veteran educators, media experts and parents believe that today’s generation of young people spend far too much free time using computers and cell phones, playing video games or computer games, watching television or DVDs, and downloading music from the Internet. They question whether today’s generation of young people have enough time left over to do their homework, get some exercise, interact with their families and get enough sleep.

Society has always expected parents to be the gatekeepers for safeguarding their children from any potential harm supposedly caused by the media. With the addition of the “new” interactive media in the mix, which gives today’s youth more opportunities than ever, parents have to be vigilant in monitoring time spent on media, as well as the content.

“Much of the media is mindless. There’s no language use. For us, the huge issue is teaching kids to read, which is an extremely difficult process,” says Dr. Georgia Hill, deputy superintendent of Educational Services for the Riverside Unified School District, and a public school educator for 38 years.

Media use has become like a full-time job. A recent study that has raised alarm among parents, educators and experts found that children and teens are spending an increasing amount of time using “new” media like computers, while still using the “old” media like television to the tune of almost 6.5 hours each day, or about 45 hours per week.

The Kaiser Family Foundation study, “Generation M: Media in the Lives of 8-18-Year-Olds,” examined media use among a national sample of 2,032 third- through 12th-graders who completed questionnaires, including almost 700 participants who also maintained seven-day media use diaries. The study, conducted in collaboration with researchers from Stanford University, measured non-school, recreational use of “old” media such as television and listening to music, and “new” media such as computers and video games. The study did not, however, draw conclusions about effects.

The findings included:

The total amount of media content youth are exposed to daily has increased by more than an hour over the past five years, from 7:29 to 8:33, with most of the increase coming from video games and computers. However, because young people “multi-task,” or use more than one media simultaneously, the actual number of hours they devote to media use has remained steady, at just under 6.5 hours per day.

Children’s bedrooms are becoming multi-media centers, raising concerns about supervision and exposure to questionable content. Eighty-six percent of respondents said they have a CD or tape player in their bedroom, 68% said they have a TV, 54% have a VCR, 49% have a video game player, and 31% have a computer in their room.

Those with a TV in their bedroom spent almost 1.5 hours more in a typical day watching TV than those without a TV in their room.

Slightly more than half, or 53%, said their families have no rules about TV viewing. Forty-six percent said they had rules but just 20% of those kids said the rules were enforced “most of the time.”

Nearly three in four youths, or 73%, said they read for pleasure an average of 43 minutes per day. However, children read 16 to 18 minutes more per day when their parents enforce rules about TV watching, don’t let them have a TV in their bedroom or do not leave the TV on during the day whether anyone was watching or not.

Young people who spend the most time watching TV (the 20% who watch more than five hours per day) don’t report spending any less time reading than other young people.

The study found no reported relationship between grades and the use of TV or computers. But it did find that those who get the lowest grades (Cs and Ds or below) spend more time playing video games, by 21 minutes, and less time reading, by 17 minutes, than those with high grades (mostly As and Bs).

Home Internet access has increased from 47% five years ago to 74% today.

These findings have prompted many parents and educators to wonder whether today’s kids are overexposed to too much media, are not spending enough time playing outdoors, doing homework or reading, and whether parents are monitoring their children’s media use adequately.

The study did not address fitness norms, and the effect media use has on obesity, now considered an epidemic among the young.

“When I saw that data, I was alarmed,” says William Habermehl, superintendent of schools for the Orange County Department of Education, referring to the Kaiser findings. He believes today’s youth indeed suffer from media overload and are not as focused on learning as they should be or could be.

“Kids cannot learn new things while they’re multi-tasking,” Habermehl says. “If we’re going to get more out of our kids and raise the standards to compete with Singapore and Japan, we’re going to have to ask them to learn a lot more.”

He sees no educational advantage to watching media favorites such as reality shows. “They’re not watching the Learning Channel or the Discovery Channel, they’re watching ‘Survivor’ or ‘American Idol,’” says Habermehl, an educational and community leader in Orange County with 34 years of experience in public education.

On the flip side, one area educator questioned whether it may be helpful for young people learn how to multi-task with media; it’s a skill adults need to succeed in the workplace. “I don’t know if it’s a bad thing,” says Cami Berry, project director with the Safe Schools Unit of the Riverside County Office of Education and an educator for 33 years in Riverside, Orange and San Bernardino counties.

TV, computers and sleepy kids

The effects of media use among children and teens has been debated for decades among researchers, parents and educators, especially the effects of viewing violent content on TV and in films. There’s a glut of conflicting conclusions.

In general, those who say too much media exposure is harmful say it can cause increased social isolation, that exposure to graphic or violent content will lead children to act violent, that too much media use will contribute to obesity among children, cause reduced reading time and lead to lower grades in school. With computers, there’s the possibility that children will be exposed to sexually explicit material on the Internet or hook up with a sexual predator masking himself as a cyberspace pen pal. Other studies say this kind of media enhances learning in many ways, and that there’s no scientific proof that TV or other media cause ill effects or are “dumbing down” our culture.

Whether computers are a good tool for learning is being debated among experts who are trying to sort it out at a time when almost all schools have computer labs or a computer in each classroom. In her book, “Failure to Connect: How Computers Affect Our Children’s Minds - and What We Can Do About It,” author Dr. Jane M. Healy, a professional educator for more than 35 years, discusses various studies on the ways computers help or hinder learning. She concludes there is little evidence that computers teach basic skills any better than traditional methods.

Healy does present positive examples of how computers can enhance education, citing, for example, the Internet’s value as a research tool and the use of software to assist children with learning disabilities. But she remains concerned about the overuse of computers at school and at home, saying parents allow far too many hours of unsupervised game playing, which she feels is no more beneficial than hours of mindless TV viewing.

Educators say computers will never replace a teacher in front of a classroom full of kids, but computers can help kids when used by trained teachers, in tandem with traditional teaching methods. For example, they say computers help at-risk high school students take online courses that keeps their interest in learning high, and that popular computer programs used in schools such as “Accelerated Reader” have encouraged children to read more books in the school library. Research also shows that sharing computers at school leads to successful group interaction, cooperation and friendship, rather than social isolation.

However, certain conditions must be present for the benefits to emerge.

“Studies show that if you put a computer in a classroom with a teacher not really trained to use it, it becomes busy work. Learning goes down,” Riverside Unified’s Dr. Hill says.

When junk is good

In his new book, “Everything Bad is Good for You: How Today’s Pop Culture Is Actually Making Us Smarter,” author Steven Johnson argues that the junk culture we so often criticize is in fact making us more intelligent. A video game will never be a book, he acknowledges, but he says video games have been shown to raise IQ scores and develop cognitive abilities that can’t be learned from books. Even TV shows and movies are more complex these days and stimulate the brain, Johnson argues.

Dr. Hill disagrees and says too much time spent on computer and video games hurts a child’s education because the time spent on these activities detracts from the live use of language, which is critical to a child’s ability to read and interact with others.

Any child who uses the media for nearly 6.5 hours per day, as determined by the Kaiser study, is using media way too much, Dr. Hill says. She compared that number of hours spent on media usage to the Riverside Unified School District’s policy of giving students from a half-hour to an hour of homework per day. The two numbers aret way out of balance. Dr. Hill would like to see parents re-think their definition of entertainment for children. “Think of all the cars you see with TV screens in them for the kids. You know what would be great entertainment? Talk to your kids. Play multiplication table games.”

Media overexposure also can have detrimental social effects, Dr. Hill says. “The media take away opportunities for mom and dad to talk to their children about life and what’s going on in front of them. Kids become disengaged from other people.”

The National Sleep Foundation also has weighed in on the issue, saying TV is one factor to blame for children loosing much-needed sleep. In its 2004 poll, “Sleep in America,” the foundation declared that children of all ages sleep less than the recommended number of hours per day, and that a television set in the bedroom disrupts the sleep of older children. The poll found that 40% of school-aged children have a TV in their bedroom; they go to sleep almost 20 minutes later and sleep less by more than two hours per week than kids who do not have a TV in their room.

Parental monitoring a must

Educators and parents agree that any negative effects from media overexposure can be lessened or turned into a positive thing with better parental monitoring not just over the amount of time spent using media but the content as well.

“This is really about parenting,” says Cami Berry of the Riverside County Office of Education.

“The key is, do you know what your kids are doing with the media? What websites are kids on and what are they watching? Parents should be aware of what their students are involved with in all avenues of life.”

Berry points to the finding that more than half of the youth say their families have no rules about TV viewing and that while 46% say they had rules, just 20% say those rules were enforced “most of the time.” She believes this shows parents are doing a poor job of monitoring their children’s media use and should be more vigilant. “If we set rules, we enforce them.”

Bob Taylor, the principal at Corona High School and the father of two children, ages 5 and 8, agrees mom and dad need to take charge. At the Taylor home, the children have to ask their parents’ permission to watch a video in their bedroom, the television is turned off during dinnertime, video game time is limited, and there are certain television programs the children know they are not allowed to watch. When the Taylors want their kids to play outside or ride their bikes and get some exercise, mom and dad simply tell the kids, “We’re going outside to play,” and out they go.

Tina Davis, a stay-at-home mother of two in Aliso Viejo with 3-and 4-year-old sons, said many parents don’t know how to find other things for their children to do. Davis believes working parents are especially in a bind because their children come home from school to a house without parents present, and the kids are easily tempted to just watch TV or play on the computer. “Parents need to schedule their children and not allow their children to schedule themselves,” says Davis, who is working with some business partners to develop a line of educational products aimed at babies and young children that will involve parent interaction and teach parents to interact with their kids.

Obsessive behavior

Ric Mulvaine believes that the interactive nature of the “new” media, especially computer and video games, has an addictive quality that can lead to overuse and social isolation. He says this may be especially true among only children like his son Sean. “Do you become a hermit and just go online and connect with people that way? This can lead to a virtual life. You have to monitor it otherwise you’re taking a risk.”

Joe Acunzo learned from personal experience that parents must take control. A couple of years ago, Acunzo said he was forced to clamp down on his teenaged daughter’s computer use. “Her obsession was instant messaging. She spent hour after hour online,” he says. He and his friend Mark Sicignano were so alarmed by the findings of the Kaiser study, which was released in March, that one month after the study came out the Connecticut men founded an organization called “PC-Turnoff” to make parents aware of the risks associated with excessive computer use by their children.

A business software designer for more than 25 years, Acunzo had searched in vain for an effective computer program that would cut off computer use after a specified time period. He instead founded his own business and designed ComputerTime, software that enables parents to set such time limits on the computer. He installed it on his daughter’s computer.

His daughter, who is now 16, is allowed to use her computer for two hours per day between 6 and 10 p.m., when her parents are home to monitor her. When the two hours are up, the computer screen blanks out and she is unable to log on again. Acunzo sells the software on his website, www.softwaretime.com.

PC-Turnoff is asking families around the world to shut down their computers between Aug. 1 to Aug. 7 and spend time doing other things like reading, exercising and talking to their kids. It could be a parent’s biggest challenge of the year.

Amy Bentley of Temecula is a regular contributor.

Make an impact
To the extent that parents are concerned about media use or overuse - by their children, research shows that parents can have an impact if they want to.

Here are some tips for parents who want to take charge:

• Turn off the TV during dinner and talk to your children about their day, or anything else they want to talk about.

• Don’t leave the TV on at home unattended.

• Consider the advice of the American Academy of Pediatrics, which suggests that parents not allow children younger than 2 to watch any television.

• Limit media time at home. Consider not allowing your child to have a TV, DVD player, VCR or computer in his or her bedroom. Keep the TV and computer in a common area instead; it’s easier that way to see what TV programs your children are watching or what they are doing on the computer.

• Install software and on your home computers to limit or restrict computer time or block access to inappropriate websites.

• Use the computer with your child and direct your child to educational websites.

• Encourage reading. For toddlers and younger children, make story time a part of the bedtime ritual. For older kids and teens, read the newspaper with them or bring home an interesting book or magazine article.

The Kaiser Family Foundation study can be found at www.kff.org.

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