Field Notes Inside an Integrated Communications Agency

Our children are at risk. And, the threat isn't the usual suspects like drugs, gangs or underperforming schools. It's entertainment media. Teen media usage is soaring - up to 7 hours and 38 minutes per day (53 hours per week) according to recently released research from the Kaiser Family Foundation. Kids are gorging themselves on an unlimited buffet of entertainment media - television, games, movies, Facebook, iPods. They are consuming media all the time and they're shoveling it in as hard and fast as they can. With media multi-tasking, our youth are able to cram in 10 hours and 45 minutes of content into that 7 and a half hours. The visual image this conjures up — a slovenly, out-of-shape, bleary eyed teen staring at multiple screens with ear buds and cords trailing from their body — is disturbing.

What's even more disturbing is that time spent texting is not included in the 7:38 hours of media use. That's another 1 hour 35 minutes for 7th through 12th graders. OMG.

Some might argue that times and technology are changing and our kids are changing too. They argue that information and education come in different forms these days and we need to keep up with our kids, not ask them to "power down." Well, the research doesn't support this and neither does common sense.

Kids who are heavier media users report lower grades. According to Kaiser, about half (47%) of heavy media users say they usually get fair or poor grades (mostly Cs or lower), compared to about a quarter (23%) of light users.

We are facing an epidemic of childhood obesity. You can't convince me that Guitar Hero or even Wii Fit are as good a workout as running around the neighborhood all afternoon with your friends. Researchers have shown that activity and fitness lead back to health, confidence and even academic performance. Time spent in front of a screen — computer, television, movie or mobile, is time taken away from physical activity.

Kids are also giving up traditional media, especially reading newspapers as part of this trend. Considering recent Pew Center research showing that 95 percent of new news comes from traditional media, it's clear that while teens are cramming in content, it's doubtful they are consuming enough content that will prepare them for the future.

Parents are standing by on the sidelines. Perhaps we are overwhelmed by all the new media. Or perhaps, like our kids, we're getting lazy. Only one in three teens report having rules on media usage, such as limits on the time they can spend watching television (28%) or on the types of content.

It's time for parents to wake up and pay attention to how their children spend their formative years. The well-being of the next generation is at stake.

Over the holidays, James Cameron's 3D extravaganza, Avatar, became the fastest movie to hit $1 billion in ticket sales. The social media world is buzzing with rave reviews.

But think twice before you let your teens see it. Not because of the violence or gore (which is considerable according to family movie rating site www.kids-in-mind.com.) Not because they'll come home wanting one of those new 3D televisions launched at this week at the Consumer Electronics Show.

Think twice about exposing your teen to movies where characters smoke. In Avatar, the Sigourney Weaver female character smokes. Today's New York Times editorial acknowledges that research demonstrates that smoking scenes in media increase the odds that a teen will start to smoke. Yet this editorial and the movie industry continue to say that more information and education of teens is better than eliminating smoking scenes in entertainment media.

The logic of this is puzzling. With health care costs spiraling out of control and limited dollars available for education on the health impacts of smoking, why wouldn't moviemakers limit smoking in their films?

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/08/opinion/08fri4.html?th&emc=th

I attended an interesting panel at SXSW09 on what teens want in a web site. Unfortunately there were not many tangible strategies offered that audience members could take home and implement from this panel.  However, it was interesting to hear teens talk freely about how they use the web in general.  Since there wasn't an abundance of specific leaning to take back with me, a few interesting comments are paraphrased below for your knowledge and/or enjoyment.

1. "It's funny to see my teachers on Facebook; it shows you that they are really people too."
2. "Me and all my friends use MySpace and not Facebook, its way cooler."
3. "Us high school kids have so much drama in our lives.  It's like, why am I not in your top 20 friends on MySpace? That's rough."
4. "I use Wikipedia most of the time for my research papers."
5. "Internet explorer?  Ew please, I only use Firefox." 
   
6. "Me and my friends all just looooove Facebook Mafia Wars! (Cough, Cord.)"
7. "Wait, an RSS what?  What happened?"