More Media Consumption Means Less Formal Learning? - Generation M2 Report
Posted Feb 06 2010 2:15pm
Generation M2: Media in the Lives of Youth 8-18 years oldwas presented the third week of January2009 by the Kaiser Family Foundation. This is the third in a series of nationally representative surveys about young people's media use conducted by this Foundation. It includes data of 19992004and 2009.
Kaiser's report reflects what was already found in 2008 by another study funded by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur FoundationLiving and Learning with New Media: Summary of Findings from the Digital Youth Project, where the authors actually suggested education institutionsto keep peace with the rapid change digital media has been introducing.
The MacArthur's findings and carried out by researchers at the University of Southern California and University of CaliforniaBerkeleyasked for a new role of education(.pdf): "Rather than assuming that education is primarily about preparing for jobs and careersthey question what it would mean to think of it as a process guiding youths’ participation in public life more generally."
As I saidprior report supports Kaiser's study. Whether we talk about text messagingtweetingwatching YouTube videos on cell phonesor lurking on a social networking site like TwitterMyspace or Facebook youths are spending more time than ever before consuming some sort of mediaincluded the old box TV. Is this the reason why they feel tireddo not make homework or are dormant in the classroom? Youas teacherare on call.
Meredith of Ypulse has posted a response to Kaiser's report. The author cites two sources where they found that in contrast with what Kaiser Foundation suggestsmusicTV and social networks are generating by the contraryhappiness and alleviating stress in teens.
Kaiser's study shows that cell phone ownership among the respondents jumped from 39% to 66%while ownership of iPods and mp3 players jumped from 18% to 76% compared to 2004. What the report fails to mentionas Meredith thoughtfully stressesis that a lot of screen time is also spent creating and sharing contentengaging youth in ways that passive screen time does not.
And even when parent lack of the decision to establish limitsthree in 10 had any rules regarding their use of mobile devicessays the report. More and moremobile devices are replacing the talking to other people and thatas a citizenshould be a concern. Are they growing humanly isolated?
And to thinktime spent texting was actually not included in the times for media consumption. It will actually increase from the average of seven hours and 38 minutes the respondents said used media in 2002(Date of Kaiser's survey) to 10 hours and 45 minutes of media consumptiondue to media multi-tasking.
I would like to quote the closing paragraph in Ypulse because I deeply reflect on her questioning
...Can some young people overdo it? Of course (I think we all suffer from information overload). Especially when parents don't set any limits. Will some young people use screen time to escape reality or avoid the pain of real life to a disconcerting extent? Yessome willand we should look out for them. Does some multimedia multi-tasking impact young people's ability to concentrate? Yepand parents and educators should be pointing this out and helping young people to focus. Instead of sounding yet another alarm about youth and technologylet's use studies like this to help young people learn to self regulate. And more importantlylet's not forget all of the positive changes this new media has brought about.
Stillif you want to elaborate on Kaiser's Generation M2 study for yourselfI invite you to apprehend the information on the slide we insert here
If you want to receive my future posts regularly for FREEplease subscribe in a reader or by e-mail. Follow me on Twitter. For other concernsContact Me at anytime.
Kaiser's report reflects what was already found in 2008 by another study funded by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur FoundationLiving and Learning with New Media: Summary of Findings from the Digital Youth Project, where the authors actually suggested education institutionsto keep peace with the rapid change digital media has been introducing.
The MacArthur's findings and carried out by researchers at the University of Southern California and University of CaliforniaBerkeleyasked for a new role of education(.pdf): "Rather than assuming that education is primarily about preparing for jobs and careersthey question what it would mean to think of it as a process guiding youths’ participation in public life more generally."
As I saidprior report supports Kaiser's study. Whether we talk about text messagingtweetingwatching YouTube videos on cell phonesor lurking on a social networking site like TwitterMyspace or Facebook youths are spending more time than ever before consuming some sort of mediaincluded the old box TV. Is this the reason why they feel tireddo not make homework or are dormant in the classroom? Youas teacherare on call.
Meredith of Ypulse has posted a response to Kaiser's report. The author cites two sources where they found that in contrast with what Kaiser Foundation suggestsmusicTV and social networks are generating by the contraryhappiness and alleviating stress in teens.
Kaiser's study shows that cell phone ownership among the respondents jumped from 39% to 66%while ownership of iPods and mp3 players jumped from 18% to 76% compared to 2004. What the report fails to mentionas Meredith thoughtfully stressesis that a lot of screen time is also spent creating and sharing contentengaging youth in ways that passive screen time does not.
And even when parent lack of the decision to establish limitsthree in 10 had any rules regarding their use of mobile devicessays the report. More and moremobile devices are replacing the talking to other people and thatas a citizenshould be a concern. Are they growing humanly isolated?
And to thinktime spent texting was actually not included in the times for media consumption. It will actually increase from the average of seven hours and 38 minutes the respondents said used media in 2002(Date of Kaiser's survey) to 10 hours and 45 minutes of media consumptiondue to media multi-tasking.
I would like to quote the closing paragraph in Ypulse because I deeply reflect on her questioning
Stillif you want to elaborate on Kaiser's Generation M2 study for yourselfI invite you to apprehend the information on the slide we insert here
If you want to receive my future posts regularly for FREEplease subscribe in a reader or by e-mail. Follow me on Twitter. For other concernsContact Me at anytime.