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Teen Screen Media Use - 2019 Results Just Released!

Common Sense Media just released its most recent annual research findings of Tween and Teen media usage.   Common Sense Media is a non-profit devoted to providing research to parents, educators, health organizations, and policymakers with reliable, independent data on children's use of media and technology and the impact it has on their physical, emotional, social, and intellectual development.

I think you will find the highlights in the report quite interesting.  If you prefer, watch this 1+ minute video summarizing the findings.

Teens average just under seven and a half hours’ worth (7:22) of entertainment screen media per day—not including time spent using screens for school or homework.

This time does not include screen use for school or homework.


What are they doing online for 7 hours a day?

Teens spend a good chunk of their time watching TV or videos online, followed by gaming. 

Boys and girls have vastly different tastes in media.


More than twice as many young people watch videos every day than did in 2015, and the average time spent watching has roughly doubled.

 The percent of young people who say they watch online videos “every day” has more than doubled among both age groups, going from 24% to 56% among 8- to 12-year- olds, and from 34% to 69% among 13- to 18-year-olds. 

The amount of time each age group spends watching online videos has gone from about a half-hour a day to about an hour a day on average (from 25 to 56 minutes a day among tweens, and from 35 to 59 minutes a day among teens).

Time students spend on their computer or smartphone per day on schoolwork:

This is an interesting statistic.  The amount of time devoted to school work is small in comparison to the amount of time spent using screens for entertainment purposes. 

Screen Media use has substantial differences based on socioeconomic status.

Unfortunately, students from lower-income backgrounds use screen media more than their peers from higher-income backgrounds.  If elevated media use causes social-emotional or physical issues for teens and tweens, the lower-income students will feel the impact more acutely.  

These statistics are quite unsettling.  Generally, I find teens don't see their screen time habits as a problem. 

This blog post by Eric Curts provides websites, tools, and courses that can help educate and empower teens (or you!) to achieve a more balanced life, as well as a range of tools to self-monitor your screen use.

All information referenced above was found in 2019 The Common Sense Census: Media Use by Tweens and Teens.
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