ALL DAY EVERY DAY: Common Sense Media has released The Common Sense Census, a report on media use by American tweens (8- to 12-year-olds) and teens (12- to 18-year-olds). Common Sense found that tweens spend an average of six hours per day consuming media and teens do so for nine hours—both figures excluding media involved in school or completing homework. The report also disclosed that half of teens consume some sort of media while doing homework, and two-thirds of those say it has no detrimental effect on the quality of their work.
Common Sense synthesized their key findings in an infographic that details the diverse diet of media teens and tweens consume every day and a video on the daily media-saturated life of a teen. According to the report, teens most valued watching TV and listening to music, and in line with this finding, Common Sense reported that the vast majority of their subjects' media use was consumptive rather than creative. Teens and tweens spent only three percent of their media time making things. The most troubling findings, however, were the widening socioeconomic and racial divides between owners of these digital devices.
