New Study Finds Teens Spend More Time Using Media Than Sleeping

A shocking, or perhaps not so shocking, study claims teens spend more time on their gadgets and with media than they do sleeping!  The report comes from San Francisco-based non-profit Common Sense Media, an organization that tracks teen technology use. 

The report finds that teens ages 13-18 spend almost nine hours a day on average consuming entertainment-based media.  The organization defines this media as things like social media, online videos, gaming, and music.  The study found teens consume media for more hours a day than they sleep!

The study also found that teens are ultimately multi-taskers.  According to the 2,658 teens interviews, 51 percent say they watch TV, 50 percent say they use social networks, 60 percent say they text and 76 percent say they listen to music while doing homework. 

Gender doesn't make much of a difference on the amount of media consumed, although, according to the study, boys are more likely to play video games than girls.  Race does have a bit of an impact though, with black teens spending more time on average on media than other races with 11 hours and 13 minutes per day.  Hispanic teens spend about 9 hours using media and white teens spend 8 hours and 48 minutes on average. 

Common Sense Media CEO Jim Steyer says this study shows we have a lot more research to do on the idea of teens multi-tasking. Teens in the study say entertainment media does not affect their ability to learn, but research so far has indicated the opposite to be true.