The Sad “Happy” Life of an American Teenager
In my office the other day a young man presented with the usual array of “executive function” difficulties – trouble with initiating, planning and sustaining his mental effort for academics.
To get a better feel for how he spent his time, I asked him to imagine that his time after school was being tracked on a reality TV show. What would we see?
Here’s the picture:
2:30: Gets home. Grabs snacks. Watches TV until about 4:00
4:00 – 6:00 Plays X-Box 360 Live
6:00 – 6:30 Dinner
6:30 – 8:00 (He really couldn’t account for this time other than agreeing that he was “crapping around.”)
8:00 - 9:00 “Sort of starts homework” (However, he fully admitted this “homework time” was mostly interspersed with Facebook, text messaging and instant messaging of some sort or another.)
9:00 – Midnight or later: Prime time for X Box 360 Live.
There it is – his daily nine and a half hours.
Even before Facebook, text messaging and X Box 360 Live, Jane Healey warned us about all of this in her book Endangered Minds (Simon & Shuster) written in 1998.
As she noted in an interview (bit.ly/9X4Pb4)) subsequent to the publishing of her book:
"Every major culture has risen or fallen because of things they failed to notice. And we’re not going to be any exception. I’m not going to say that TV and computers bringing down the culture, but I truly think they can start a process that will dramatically change the character of the culture. And whether people will like what they get is a question no one can answer. "
Comments
Starts early
I think we would all benefit from taking an account for our daily schedule. So much time lost. Even with a 7 yr old, we can lose track of time and homework between television, video games and the computer (no phone or texting yet!). Noticing and starting to implement a healthy schedule now will, I hope, create a foundation for her education.
The average day for a jr or
The average day for a jr or sr high schooler is frightful. I love technology but it is increasingly making social interaction and physical exercise back burner events. It worries me and my wife as we have one of these kids. We continue to insist that the kids get some down time after they get home but their homework gets done thereafter. We also have their afternoon schedules supplemented with music and other activities.
I like the blog.
A
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