kaiser report

The fact that today's youth uses media more than ten years ago does not surprise me. We are in a rapidly expanding technological age, and the next new best thing will be available tomorrow. My kids are going to go out and get it; I don't know exactly what it's going to be, but they will have it. I wasn't a big text person until I got my current phone that has a keyboard on it. I still refuse to curtail my texts with incorrect spellings, but will occasionally use abbreviations such as btw for by the way, or my favorite to my wife, ILUVVM (I love you very, very much). I will never say "u r" for "you are"; if you get in the habit of doing this frequently, what's going to happen when you're trying to create a legitimate document for viewing by professionals?
Anyway, I'm digressing. This increase in media use started in the 1980's (maybe before) and I remember it. In 1984, I got my first television in my bedroom, where I watched my afternoon soaps (no comment please....I was 13 and was intrigued) and my favorite programs at night. I had a stereo next to my bed where I listened to music for the first hour of "bedtime". Of course, it's all different in today's society. Kids go to bed with their Ipods and their cell phones to text their BFF (I just had to use that one) to find out the in-school gossip of the day.
Is it going to affect performance in school? Absolutely. Will it be positive or negative? Both, I would say. I say positive because the media that children have access to will make doing homework/research so much easier. Instead of flipping through pages of an encyclopedia and finding the right volume, an Internet search for a subject is right at the student's fingertips. I also say negative because, with all of the potential distractions that these media present to children, it will be difficult to keep the children on task. However, if properly used, the media acts as a great benefit, making it a "necessary evil".