New Study Shows Excessive Media Screen Time Affects Kids' Grades
by Ed Thomas
October 5, 2006
(AgapePress) - - There's a new study out that verifies what parents and teachers have been saying to students for years -- that they need to turn off the TV and other media devices and concentrate on their school work.Data from New York's Albert Einstein College shows some negative effects on school performance in middle school students in relation to their media exposure. But one spokesman for an organization that promotes media restraint says that is something a lot of concerned advocates already knew and have been saying for years.
Robert Kesten is executive director of the Center for Screen Time Awareness in Washington, DC. The group is part of the TV-Turnoff Network, whose mission, he says, is to empower people to take control of the electronic media in their lives.
The Einstein College study, which found that adult media exposure adversely affected schoolwork among 4,508 middle school students aged 9-15, is not the first study to demonstrate that effect, Kesten points out. "It is clearly known within the scientific and medical communities that screen time has a reverse impact on the way a student will do in school," he says.
And that impact includes the students' ability to read and comprehend their work, the Center's spokesman emphasizes. For students exposed to an inordinately high amount of media "screen time," he suggests, "instead of studying, instead of doing your homework, or instead of focusing on those two things, your mind is elsewhere."
There are a myriad of electronic distractions that compete for students' attention; however studying, learning and otherwise working on homework take time, focus and concentration, Kesten contends. "And if you're watching television or you're IM'ing [i.e., sending instant text messages to] your friends, or you're surfing the net, or you're playing with your iPod or you're watching a movie," he insists, "you're not focused and concentrating on what you need to be."
After monitoring how different amounts of television, movie, and video game exposure -- and different types of content -- affect the school performance of middle school students, the two authors of the recently published Einstein College study are recommending that adolescents be limited to no more than one hour of media screen time per weekday. The researchers also recommend that teens' access to cable movie channels and R-rated video and movie content be significantly restricted.
Kesten says the results of that study agree with previous research that shows greater media exposure leads to poorer academic performance. Also, he notes, all these kinds of studies highlight the importance of parents' involvement in supervising their children's media exposure and schoolwork.
Ed Thomas, a regular contributor to AgapePress, is a reporter for American Family Radio News, which can be heard online.
