I have two Millennial-age kids, one in high school and another is a college student. This summer they exhibit the sleep habits of nocturnal wild animals. If they were dropped into Hong Kong tomorrow, they would experience no jet lag.
Technology knows no time zone and is hard to quit once you start. Combine entertainment with social connection and you have a sticky brew. My son dramatically removed the TV from his room during final exam week, but has yet to restore it. I now see why: he doesn’t need it! His laptop functions as super-functional TV/DVD/ player with communication built in.
New research from OTX (and conversations with other parents) assures me my kids are fairly typical. Andy Pipes, in blog post titled “Technology, Kids and Telly”, summarized the OTX findings on 12-24 year-olds like this:
* They personally own 8 devices (including MP3 player, PC, TV, DVD player, mobile phone, stereo, games console, and digital camera)
* They frequently conduct over 5 activities whilst watching TV
* 25% of them agree that “I’d rather stay at home than go on a holiday with no internet or phone access”
* A quarter of young people interviewed text or IM (instant message) friends they are physically with at the time
* They have on average 123 friends on their social network spaces
* And the first thing the majority of them do when they get home is turn on their PC
Although the research is from London, all of these findings ring true with my experience, including the points about vacation and texting friends sitting next to you. According to the OTX report, youth’s obsession with technology is less about the technology and more connection and communication.
“Young people’s immersion in these devices and the time spent on them is not due to an obsession with the technology per se, but largely due to the gadgets’ ability to facilitate communication and to enhance young people’s enjoyment of traditional pursuits. For most, the focus of their passion is not so much the device itself, but more about how it can help them connect, relax or have fun. The technology itself is “invisible” to the young consumer.
How is all this ‘communication’ affecting offline relationships with friends and family? According to the Annenberg research (reported this week by AP) Internet time is more likely to cut into family time than time with friends.”
In 2000, when the center began its annual surveys on Americans and the Internet, only 11 percent of respondents said that family members under 18 were spending too much time online. By 2008, that grew to 28 percent….In the first half of the decade, people reported spending an average of 26 hours per month with their families. By 2008, however, that shared time had dropped by more than 30 percent, to about 18 hours.”
The OTX research aligns with this finding. Here is Andy Pipes again:
>”These activities seem to be making up for not spending as much physical time with their friends as they’d like – which seems to be most of the time. On the weekends, when typical young adults have the most free time, they are still spending more time hanging out with their mates and watching television than any other activity – the difference is that this generation tends to be engaging with their connected devices a lot more whilst doing those cherished activities.“
I suppose i can take some comfort in that. Meanwhile, I don’t miss hearing the refrain of summers past: “Mom, I’m bored. There’s nothing to do!”
