Media Use, Kids and Influencers

It’s amazing when you realize how much media our kids are really exposed to daily. (Media, in this case, refers to TV, computers, DVDs, video games and music).

• Kids spend, on average, 6.5 hours a day with media
• 26 percent of the time, they are using more than one device. This means that 8.5 hours’ worth of media exposure a day is packed into 6.5 hours. (This is equivalent to a full-time job).
• Kids spend more than three hours a day watching TV
• They read an average of 45 minutes a day
• Kids with TVs in their bedrooms watch, on average, an hour and a half more than kids without TVs in their bedrooms.
• 55 percent of homes get premium channels like HBO
• HBO and Showtime had 85 percent (the highest amount) of violent programming

Parents, don’t think you can fight her “peers” or the power of pop culture. Exactly the opposite is true. Yes, the four Ms–MTV, music, movies and magazines–are enormous influences that shape what girls think of themselves, what clothes they wear and even the grades they get. But their influence doesn’t even come close to the influence of a father. A lot of research has gone into this–and fathers always come out on top. The effects of a loving, caring fathers on their daughters’ lives can be measured in girls of all ages.