New Report Reveals Staggering Screen Use By 8-18 Year Olds

girl with a laptop sitting on newspapers
B&T Magazine
By B&T Magazine



A new study has shown that teenagers in the US are bloody big consumers of media, and if Australian kids are anything like them, they’re a highly engaged bunch.

Common Sense Media’s report, Media Use by Tweens and Teens, looks at the media preferences and habits of kids aged between eight and 18 to determine how central a role media plays in the lives of Gen Z.

The census shows that teens (13-18) and tweens (8-12) have vast differences in the way they interact with the media on a day to day basis. While tweens spend an average of six hours using media per day, the teens clock up closer to nine, including time spent doing school and homework.

Multi-tasking is not just for women either; the teens are doubling and tripling up with social media, TV, texting and music at the same time as homework, something most feel has no impact on the quality of their work.

The media diets of both teens and tweens also reflect different interests and habits, with 23 per cent of tweens video gamers, 14 per cent mobile users and 27 per cent light users. Teens on the other hand are 13 per cent readers, 26 per cent heavy users, and 32 per cent light users.

Interestingly, music and the old box set remain king when it comes to the entire cohort, and mobile devices facilitate a large chunk of their media consumption, with almost half of both teens and tweens engaging with media via mobile.

You can check out more of the study in the infographic, or alternatively watch how many teenagers run into each other while on their phones walking down the street. You’ll get the gist pretty quickly.

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