Technology In The News

 

The following quotes and links to the entire report are provided for your own knowledge as you raise your digital citizen(s) in the 21st century. I hope that you find them informative.

"Social media platforms play a central role in many girls’ lives, and yet girls have mixed opinions about the effects these platforms are having on them. Girls are more likely to say that their lives would be “worse,” rather than “better,” without social media, and they cite frequent positive experiences, ranging from identity affirmation to social connection and access to helpful mental health resources and information."
2023 Teens and Mental Health: How Girls Really Feel About Social Media
Common Sense Media
March 30, 2023

"Media use has grown faster since the start of the pandemic—over a two-year period—than it had over the previous four years. But this report goes a few steps further by exploring the content behind those numbers: how kids are spending that time, and how their engagement with media makes them feel."
2021 The Common Sense Census: Media Use by Tweens and Teens
Common Sense Media
March 9, 2022

2021 The Role of Media During The Pandemic: Connection, Creativity, and Learning for Tweens and Teens:
Full Report
Infographic
Common Sense Media

December 10, 2021

Achieving Digital Wellness In The Family: The Five Most Important Steps
Turning Life On
2021

"The answer these days, for most families, can’t be 'don’t ever use screens'. So, it is more a matter of what you can do to make all that screen time more productive and to improve overall health, learning and well-being. Here are ten parenting ideas based on what the research tells us."
Ten Research-Backed Tips on Parenting in a Digital Era
Smithsonian Magazine
February 2021

"The unprecedented shock of 2020 threatens the mental health and future of this generation of adolescents --the most diverse cohort in U.S. history."
Tweens, Teens, Tech, and Mental Health: Coming of Age In An Increasingly Digital, Uncertain, and Unequal World
Common Sense Media
2020

"Digital technology has become a constant and major presence in children's lives. Understanding how experiences with digital media may shape the developing brain is essential knowledge..."
Children, Executive Functioning, and Digital Media: A Review
Common Sense Media
2020

"On average, children from birth to age 8 use two and a half hours of screen media a day.  Online videos now dominate children's screen time."
2020 The Common Sense Census: Media Use By Kids Age Zero To Eight
November 2020

"On average, 8- to 12-year-olds in this country use just under five hours’ worth of entertainment screen media per day (4:44), and teens use an average of just under seven and a half hours’ worth (7:22)—not including time spent using screens for school or homework. Watching online videos has become so popular among tweens that it is now the media activity they enjoy the most, with 67% saying they enjoy it “a lot”; four years ago, it ranked fifth in enjoyment among tweens, after TV, music, video games, and mobile games"
2019 The Common Sense Census: Media Use by Tweens and Teens
Common Sense Media
November 2019

"By age 11, a majority (53%) of kids have their own smartphone, and by 12 more than two-thirds (69%) do."
2019 The Common Sense Census: Media Use by Tweens and Teens
Common Sense Media
November 2019

Sharenting” — posting photos, videos and personal stories about one’s children online — isn’t anything new in the age of social media. In fact, 92 percent of U.S. children had an online presence before the age of two, according to a 2010 survey.
What Happens When Kids Realize Their Entire Lives Are Online?
Life
March 4, 2019

The link between the social-media use, depression, and loneliness has been talked about for years, but a causal connection had never been proven. For the first time, Penn research based on experimental data connects Facebook, Snapchat, and Instagram use to decreased well-being.
Social media use increases depression and loneliness
University of Pennsylvania- Penn Today
November 2018

The vast majority of school leaders (95 percent) say students get too much screen time at home. This concern about screen time at home is consistent across leaders from schools with higher and lower poverty and also across elementary, middle, and high school.
School Leaders and Technology -Results From A National Survey
Education Week Research Center
2018

Students who interact with their cell phones in class perform worse on tests -- often a full letter grade or more. In fact, just having phones within reach, can cause academic performance to decline, whether they're used or not.
Smartphones aren't a smart choice in middle school

CNN
December 2017

As individuals increasingly turn to smartphone screens for managing and enhancing their daily lives, we must ask how dependence on these devices affects the ability to think and function in the world off-screen.
Brain Drain: The Mere Presence of One’s Own Smartphone Reduces Available Cognitive Capacity
The Association for Consumer Research
April 2017

Parents of American tweens (age 8–12) and teens (age 13–18) average more than nine hours (9:22) with screen media each day, with 82 percent of that time devoted to personal screen media (7:43).  Parents use over an hour and a half of screen media for work (1:39). Indeed, when work and personal media are combined, 51 percent of parents reported spending eight hours or more with screen media each day, and 30 percent spent four to less than eight hours.  Yet, 78 percent of all parents believe they are good media and technology role models for their children.
The Common Sense Census: Plugged-in Parents of Tweens and Teens and Infographic
Common Sense Media
December 2016

SplashData has announced the 2015 edition of its annual “Worst Passwords List” highlighting the insecure password habits of Internet users. “123456” and “password” once again reign supreme as the most commonly used passwords, as they have since SplashData’s first list in 2011, demonstrating how people’s choices for passwords remain consistently risky.
Worst Passwords of 2015
SplashData, Inc.

January 19, 2016

Teenagers use an average of nine hours of entertainment media per day, and tweens (age 8-12) use an average of six hours a day, not including time spent using media for school or homework. Many teens use media while studying, and most think it has no effect on the quality of their work: 76% listen to music, 60% send texts, 51% watch TV, and 50% use social media.
The Common Sense Census: Media Use by Tweens and Teens
Common Sense Media
November 3, 2015

In a cross-sectional study of 350 children aged 6 months to 4 years, almost all children (96.6%) used mobile devices, and most started using before age 1. Parents gave children devices when doing house chores (70%), to keep them calm (65%), and at bedtime (29%). At age 2, most children used a device daily and spent comparable screen time on television and mobile devices. Most 3- and 4-year-olds used devices without help, and one-third engaged in media multitasking. Content delivery applications such as YouTube and Netflix were popular.
Exposure and Use of Mobile Media Devices by Young Children
Pediatrics
November 2, 2015

Aided by the convenience and constant access provided by mobile devices, especially smartphones, 92% of teens report going online daily—including 24% who say they go online “almost constantly,” according to a new study from Pew Research Center. More than half (56%) of teens—defined in this report as those ages 13 to 17—go online several times a day, and 12% report once-a-day use. Just 6% of teens report going online weekly, and 2% go online less often.
Teens, Social Media & Technology Overview 2015
Pew Research Center
April 9, 2015

Of 381 college admissions officers who answered a Kaplan telephone questionnaire this year, 31% said they had visited an applicant's Facebook or other personal social media page to learn more about them—a five-percentage-point increase from last year. More crucially for those trying to get into college, 30% of the admissions officers said they had discovered information online that had negatively affected an applicant's prospects.
They Loved Your G.P.A. Then They Saw Your Tweets
The New York Times
November 9, 2013