This past week our activity day girls had a Book Review trying to encourage the young ladies to read more and watch less. My partner shared some interesting facts about screen time in kids ages 8-18. They spend an average of 4.5 hours watching TV, 1.5 hours in front of the computer, and 2 hours listening to music. YIKES! There is a reason they call it the boob tube and the electronic babysitter. All the girls who were in attendance adamantly proclaimed they NEVER spent that much time in front of a screen. Even if that is true, that means there are kids out there spending even more time in front of the idiot box- hence the term average. (I will admit that during middle school years I was probably in this high category when there was no adults regulating my TV time. I was bringing up the average.) We had a nice little chat about our favorite books and they all went home with a list of books they might want to check out and read.
So, the follow up. I was interested in adult screen time to see how it compared, assuming it would obviously be less since we lead much busier lives. ::buzzer noise::WRONG! Gleaning a few facts from some recent newspaper articles, Ball State University found that adults spend an average of 8.5 hours in front of a screen per day, with 5 of those hours coming from TV. This was in a shadowing study since most people tend to under report the actual amount of time they spend in front of the screen. (Its sort of like food diaries, people can under report calories by as much as 50% and often over estimate the amount of fruits and vegetables they get probably due to social stigmas. Did you know you burn more calories sleeping than watching TV because at least your body is doing repair work in bed.) But I digress, in another study it was found that for each extra hour spent in front of the TV it increases your risk of dying from cardiovascular disease by 18% and from all other causes by 11%. The numbers held true even among people who have a healthy weight and exercise. If you watched more than 4 hours you were 80% more likely to die from CVD and 46% more likely to die from all other causes. WOW!
The kicker, where did I get this information? Off the computer. How am I sharing it? On the computer. What are you doing right now? Sitting in front of a screen. So get off your bum and go do something! I am, I'm going to go play in the snow with the boys.
We have a tv...just no cable. It's only able to play movies. I probably watch no more than one movie (family movie night) per week. I probably would watch a lot more IF we had cable, so that is why we don't. Although being at the hospital, I haven't turned the tv on once since getting here...so maybe I wouldn't. I highly dislike commercials. I would love to do a computer journal though, because I know I spend way too much time in front of it. I know as a tv/computer/music nazi in my home, my kids are on the less than 10% for time spent with electronic gadgets. Probably an average total of 4-6 hours a week on average in front of a screen, etc. Great post, great reminder on what we can improve on. :)
ReplyDeletePS: You need to update your "About Me" sidebar...and include your latest baby.
Was your snow-day fun?
ReplyDeleteI remember that stage--you spend half the time just dressing three little ones, so that by the time YOU are dressed and out to play, you're EXHAUSTED before you really start...
(even tho' most of the exhaustion is mental)
xo
...relivin' the days...
GO ALANA!!
We just read an article about this in US Today Jarrod brought home from Marshall. The boys entered an Optimist contest, and the prompt was about the internet: today's menace or tomorrow's future. Something like that. Anyway it's been dinner conversation for the past week. We don't have tv so movie nights are something to look forward to around here.
ReplyDeleteMy guess is that the girls you were working with don't spend that much time in front of a screen.
ReplyDelete