Teens Spend More than a Full Workweek on Digital Media — Common Sense Media

A report published today by Common Sense Media revealed that 26% of American teenagers spend upwards of eight hours a day on entertainment media. The San-Francisco based non-profit, which tracks children and their technology use, found that teens divide their screen time between social media, music, gaming and online videos. The report does not factor in time spent on media for school or homework.

The report found wide variation in the kinds of media consumed. Even among the teens who focus on gaming, there are sub-groups (mobile gaming, video gaming, video/computer combined gamers), and those who focus on social media or reading. Among the findings:

Boys and girls have very different media preferences and habits.
There are stark differences in the media preferences and habits of boys and girls, in both the tween and teen years. The biggest difference is in console video game playing: Most boys like console games a lot and play them frequently, and most girls don’t. Girls like reading more than boys do and devote more time to it. Both boys and girls enjoy listening to music and using social media “a lot,” but girls enjoy those activities more and spend quite a bit more time doing them. For example, among teens, 27 percent of boys say playing video games is their favorite media activity; only 2 percent of girls do. Teen boys average 56 minutes a day playing video games, compared with only seven minutes for girls. On the other hand, teen girls spend about 40 minutes more a day with social media than boys on average (1:32, compared with :52 among boys). And teen girls spend more time reading than boys too: an average of 33 minutes a day, compared with 23 for boys (41 percent of teen girls say they enjoy reading “a lot,” compared with 19 percent of boys that age).

Despite the variety of new media activities available to them, watching TV and listening to music dominate young people’s media diets.
Tweens and teens have a plethora of choices when it comes to media-related activities, from watching YouTube videos to using Instagram, from playing Angry Birds on a smartphone to playing World of Warcraft on a computer. But when asked which activities they enjoy “a lot” and which they engage in “every day,” watching TV and listening to music dominate. Among tweens, the top activity is watching TV: Nearly two-thirds (62 percent) say they watch “every day” (by comparison, 24 percent watch online videos and 27 percent play mobile games every day). Among teens, music is No. 1: Two-thirds (66 percent) listen to music “every day” (by comparison, 45 percent use social media and 27 percent play mobile games every day).