Let me get it right out there: I am a fangirl. It’s not a teen idol, not vampire books, nor is it Japanese pop culture (TANGENT ALERT: I do find Japanese pop culture and fashion extremely interesting. I would love to delve into Bento boxes and street fashion some other time). Nope. It’s the New York Times. I read it like the holy book. I believe everything they say. I name drop all the time; Maureen Dowd, David Brooks, Judith Warner, Thomas Friedman, not to mention all of their health journalists. I realize this is unhealthy and unbalanced. I try to balance it out with other food groups; I’ll read a bit of CNN, a dash of PEOPLE online, and The Washington Post. Sometimes I will even check my local paper. But I always come back to the NYT. Just try to tear yourself away from the comments people leave –it’s addicting. The point is, I just read another article that I can’t get outta my head. If Your Kids are Awake, They’re Probably Online
Let’s discuss:
It’s no surprise that kids are consuming more media than ever. But I was blown away by the numbers. There are only 24 hours in a day, but if you are listening to music, texting, and watching a movie at the same time it triples your media exposure. I guess I never thought of that. I always think MB and I are pretty lenient with the media thing. Most of our friends don’t even have tvs. We have BASIC cable and that makes us kind of worldly. After reading, I felt us slipping to the other side of the spectrum. 7 out of 10 kids have tvs in their bedrooms. Seriously?! 1 out of 3 with computers with internet access? [sucks in through teeth] I just can’t understand it. Do these parents not want to see their kids all day, or is it a babysitter, or a way to keep them inside? All I needed was my own phone line for my parents to have no clue what I was up to (which was never anything all that bad, given my sibling’s shenanigans).There’s part of me that thinks this might be a result of parents trying to keep kids safe and entertained, far from an outside world of kidnappers and boredom. Or do some parents not know how to say “no” when their kids ask for another electronic personal device? Or maybe there is a contingent of parents who really don’t care either way. Personally, I love it when my kids get bored because I pull the classic, “You’re bored? Great you can help me with [insert household chore here]!” It works like magic.
LegoManiac is extremely disappointed that we didn’t get him a handheld gaming device for Christmas. He constantly reminds us that “even the kindergartners” have them. He came home from school the other day, upset that he had been ignored on the bus ride home because his friend was playing his handheld the entire time. Obviously he was more upset by not owning one of his own, but I kept trying to point out to him (not very subtly) that one of the reason we don’t want him to have one is it takes away from real people time. (Okay now don’t get in a huff, I don’t care if somebody wants to play games on their boring bus ride home – that’s their deal.) It’s not like we’re Luddites. He did get a hand-me-down ipod for listening to audiobooks. Obviously we live in world saturated by media and that’s not going away, but I find it difficult to draw the line of helpful and fun versus harmful and time wasting. LegoManiac and Maxine get an hour of media time on the weekdays and 2 (sometimes more) on Saturday. And summer time is kind of a free for all. I am curious what everybody else does with their kids. Do you think it needs to be limited? How much? On another media related note, am I a freak that I find it shocking that 2nd graders watch PG13 movies and play Halo?
Gotta go. My show is on.
{ 11 comments }