WASHINGTON, D.C. — For adults complaining about America’s youth being saturated in media usage, it appears the apple hasn’t fallen far from the iPad.
Parents spend more than nine hours a day with screen media, and the vast majority of that time is spent with personal screen media, according to a study issued Dec. 6 by Common Sense Media, a San Francisco-based organization that has long been tracking children’s media usage.
Even so, according to the study, 78 percent of parents believe they are good media and technology role models for their children.
When it came to parents’ screen-time use, 51 percent said they used it for eight hours or more each day, 30 percent said for four to eight hours, 13 percent for two to four hours, and 6 percent for less than 2 hours.
Common Sense said it is possible for people – parents and children alike – to use more than one form of media simultaneously, such as listening to music while engaging in social media. Still, some groups’ habits skew the survey’s results.
While only 61 percent of parents reported playing video games the day before they were polled, the study said, “these users played video games for an average of 2:27 (hours and minutes), compared to only 1:30 among all parents in our sample, which includes the 39 percent of parents who played no video games at all,” the study said. “Similarly, the 61 percent of parents who used social media yesterday spent 1:48 doing so, compared with the average of 1:06 among all parents. Only 19 percent of parents used e-readers yesterday, but those who did spent 1:16 reading e-books.”
The notion of a nation of workers chained to their computer screens was dispelled in the study, which showed that only 1:39 was spent on work screen media compared to 7:43 on personal screen media.
The most-used device by parents was the television, DVD player and/or video, for an average of 3:17. Groups watching TV for more than four hours were blacks, Hispanics, those whose education stopped at high school or earlier, and those making under $35,000 a year.
Those parent groups spending the most time each day with media – in hours and minutes – were blacks (12:42), those making under $35,000 (10:21), those with a high school education or less (10:10) and Hispanics (10:01). The group spending the least time with media, at 8:13 daily, were those with at least a bachelor’s degree.
Fifty-eight percent of parents said they listen to music while working, 48 percent sent text messages, 38 percent used social media, and 33 percent watched TV, the study said, while 63 percent reported their tweens and teens have their own cellphones, and 51 percent of them have their own tablet.
Negotiating media use with their children causes conflicts for 37 percent of parents, according to Common Sense. Forty percent of parents of boys said that negotiating media use causes conflicts, compared to 34 percent of parents of girls. Only 35 percent of parents felt that technologies such as smartphones and tablets make parenting easier.
While more than one-third of parents reported being “moderately” or “extremely” worried about their children’s internet use in a variety of ways, parents of “tweens” – defined in the study as children ages 8-12 – were consistently more worried than parents of teens.
Forty-three percent of all parents say their kids spend too much time on media, the Common Sense Media study said.
More than two-thirds, or 67 percent, of parents said monitoring their children’s media use is more important than respecting their privacy.
Hispanic parents, the study said, tend to be more aware and more concerned, and they manage their children’s media use more than other parents – 60 percent for Hispanics as opposed to 37 percent for whites and 33 percent for blacks.
“A majority of parents do report, however, that children are not allowed to use devices during family meals (78 percent) or at bedtime (63 percent),” the study said.
Results were obtained by interviewing 1,786 U.S. parents of children ages 8-18. Interviews were conducted July 8-25,
Parent media activities covered in the survey included watching TV, movies and videos, playing video games, listening to music, using social media, reading either print or electronic books, and using digital devices for other purposes, such as browsing websites and playing games. They also were asked about computer, smartphone and tablet use for work purposes.
The media devices or technologies covered in the survey include video game consoles, handheld video game players, TV sets, desktop and laptop computers, tablets, smartphones, cellphones that are not smartphones, and e-readers. The survey, which can be found at http://tinyurl.com/jp3ywwn, also asked about print reading materials, such as books, newspapers and magazines.
— Mark Pattison, Catholic News Service
Alex Tan (center, with gloved hand on his left shoulder) is prayed over by the Holy Trinity Middle School football team and coaches during the time of his illness.(PHoto povided by Jim Alvarez) CHARLOTTE — In what has become an annual Lenten Friends faith sharing series, St. Matthew Church has produced another DVD series featuring local parishes and faith stories to bring Catholics together over the course of 40 days to grow in their faith.
Six Charlotte area parishes are participating this year: St. Matthew, St. Gabriel, St. John Neumann and St. Peter churches in Charlotte and Holy Spirit Church in Denver.
The 2017 Lenten series, entitled “The Doctor Is In…Pathways to a Healthy Mind, Body and Spirit” includes a DVD and a participant book to serve as guides. Each week, small groups reflect on and discuss select topics related to healing.
The fourth lesson in the 2017 series features Jesuit Father Jim Shea, pastor of St. Peter Church in Charlotte and his parishioners, the Tan family. The title of the lesson is “Healing through Medicine and the Sacrament of the Sick,” where Father Shea shares that illness and suffering have always been a great and troubling mystery for all people, even Christians.
“Yet our faith in Christ brings us meaning, hope and courage in the face of illness,” Father Shea explains. “Jesus heals those wounded in body, soul and spirit. This saving power of the whole person is the core of His ministry. Today the Church continues that healing ministry, and we are a people called and empowered by the Holy Spirit to heal.”
He notes that Pope Francis imagines the Church as a field hospital, healing those wounded in the battle.
St. Peter Church parishioners, the Tan family, share about the battle they faced during their teenage son Alex’s health crisis and how their faith, family, church and school communities helped them through a very trying and uncertain time.
When Alex was 14, he had a terrible headache and things quickly got worse as a mysterious illness began to affect his eye. His parents Eric and Pam recall how his left eye became completely closed, and they took Alex to doctor after doctor as his condition steadily worsened.
The pain became so great, Alex could not eat or go to school and prescribed steroids caused him to gain 40 pounds.
“I was up all night praying any prayer I could think of,” Pam says. “Just to heal my son and to give me some answers.”
The local community came together and prayed for answers to the medical mystery. Finally, a diagnosis of orbital pseudotumor was made but Alex did not respond to treatment, so he underwent brain surgery to obtain tissue for testing.
The Tan family prayed for the doctors, and weeks of testing on the tissue confirmed the original diagnosis. Alex began a regimen of stronger steroids and his family and prayer warriors began a nine-day novena for his healing.
His school, Holy Trinity Middle, prayed the prayer aloud with the morning announcements every school day during the novena.
“They all put their hands on me and (were) praying, which was pretty cool,” Alex says, recalling how the football team and other students came together to pray over him during that time.
In a private setting at St. Peter Church, Father Shea gave Alex the sacrament of the anointing of the sick.
Now Alex is healed of his illness and is in high school.
“I’m more grateful for every single day, because when you wake up you really don’t know what the next day brings,” he says.
Pam says she now has a much stronger relationship with God than she ever did before. Her son’s illness drew them all closer to God.
“It’s a test of faith,” Eric shares. “I think you’ve got to believe that there is a reason for everything that happens. We’re just going to follow the path and do everything we can and lean into God. That’s the time you really lean into Him.”
For more information about the Lenten Friends DVD series, go to www.lentenfriends.org
— SueAnn Howell, Senior reporter. Lentenfriends.org contributed to this article.