Most Teens Want to Cut Their Screen Time

Almost two-thirds of young people ages 13-18 claim they wish they were better able to self-limit how much time they spend on their smartphone, according to a survey of more than 1,000 teens by Screen Education, which consults and conducts research and workshops on "digital wellness" issues.

Even more (68%) said they’d attempted to reduce their screen time and 26% said they wished someone else would limit their screen time for them. More than half who attend a school that bans smartphones in class said they were glad of that policy.

“These kids know their phones are compromising so many aspects of their lives and they want help, Michael Mercier, president of Screen Education, said in a statement. He recommended imposing “reasonable limits” on screen time and cultivating teens’ ability to police their own screen time.

Among the survey’s other findings:

• 69% of respondents said they wish they could spend more time in face-to-face interactions rather than socializing online.

• 32% want to stop using their phone but find themselves unable to do so—every day.

• 41% said they feel overwhelmed every day by their notifications.

• 41% said phones present an obstacle to getting the best grades they can.

• 36% said they witness cyberbullying on a weekly basis.

• 31% have seen online bullying escalate to physical violence.

• 73% said they feel social media use is a factor in conditions that can lead to school shootings.

Screen Time Linked to Insomnia, Depression

For adolescents, the more time spent on electronic screens the greater the likelihood of insomnia and shorter sleep duration, which in turn are linked to a higher incidence of depressive symptoms. Those were the findings of a new study by researchers at Stony Brook University, Pennsylvania State University, and University of Wisconsin-Madison.

“Higher rates of depressive symptoms among teens may be partially explained through the ubiquitous use of screen-based activities, which can interfere with high-quality restorative sleep,” Stella Xian Li, a postdoctoral associate at Stony Brook.

Parents, health-care professionals, and educators should consider instructing adolescents about the effects of screen time and regulating device use.

“We’re very interested to see whether the adverse influences of social media and screen use on sleep and mental health persist during the transition to adulthood,” said Lauren Hale, a professor of family, population, and preventive medicine at Stony Brook who also collaborated on the study.

The researchers analyzed data from surveys of more than 2,800 teens, about evenly divided between males and females. Respondents reported how many hours they spent daily on gaming, social messaging, TV/movies, and web surfing. Gaming was found to have a stronger link to depressive symptoms than messaging activity.

U.K. Detox Camps Help Teens Unplug

After touring secondary schools and surveying students ages 13-18, the founder of a British “digital detox” company said she’ll expand its services this spring to include teenagers.

Tanya Goodin of Time To Log Off found that 29% of the young people she polled said they spend more than eight hours a day online, and more than a third regularly fall asleep at night with their phone or laptop in bed with them.

In the U.S., in response to a December 2016 survey of more than 4,500 college students by NACS’ OnCampus Research, a quarter said they spend two hours every day on social media, 19% said three hours, 14% said four hours, and 9% said five hours. Three percent admitted actually devoting 10 hours every day to social media.

Unlike Internet-addiction treatment centers in China, which are run more like army boot camps, Time To Log Off’s three-day teen retreats in Britain will emphasize team-building and creative activities such as painting, cooking, and photography.

Richard Graham, a London psychiatrist, told The Guardian newspaper that schools should be looking into running their own digital-detox programs, especially close to midterm and final exams. He said what’s needed is a “systemwide approach, with clean times and clean zones where everyone switches off.”

Are Mobile Devices Addictive?

A new survey from Common Sense Media reports teens think they may be addicted to their mobile devices. The poll of 1,240 parents and teens from the same household found that half of the teens said they were addicted to their device, while nearly 60% of the parents agreed.

About a third of the kids said they try to reduce the amount of time they spend using a mobile device and 66% said devices were not allowed at the dinner table. However, 72% of the teens said they felt it was necessary to respond to texts, social networking messages, and other notifications immediately, while 78% said they check their devices hourly.

The parents may be addicted as well, since 48% said they responded to messages immediately and 69% check their device hourly.

“What we’ve discovered is that kids and parents feel addicted to their mobile devices, that it is causing daily conflict in homes, and that families are concerned about the consequences,” said James Steyer, founder and CEO of Common Sense, in a report for eSchool News. “We also know that problematic media use can negatively affect children’s development and that multitasking can harm learning and performance. As a society, we all have the responsibility to take media use and addiction seriously and make sure parents have the information to help them make smart choices for their families.”

Tech Trends Reshape K-12 Learning

Schools are rethinking the roles of teachers, finding new approaches to learning, and starting to use more open educational resources (OER). All three are emerging technology trends that will have an impact over the next year or two, according to the Horizon Report 2014 K-12 Edition.

Redefining teachers as mentors who guide groups and individual learners through technology-based lessons tops the list. Schools are also emphasizing technologies that promote college and career readiness skills and using OER to keep budgets in line.

The report noted that more hybrid classes will be used within the next three to five years, allowing students to do online homework at home and free up class time for group discussions and projects. The report said long-range trends include the use of more intuitive technology through mobile devices and gaming systems, a focus on innovative school designs, and restructuring schedules to provide more flexibility.

“As online learning and free educational content becomes more pervasive, stakeholders and administrators must seriously consider what schools can provide that cannot be replicated by other sources,” the authors of the report wrote. “It is no longer necessary for parents to send their children to school for them to become knowledgeable and gain skills that will lead them to gainful employment. There are, however, valuable skills and attitudes that many believe can only be acquired in school settings.”

Simon & Schuster partners with Scribd to sell e-books and launches social networking site for teens

In an effort to make its e-books available via new distribution channels, Simon & Schuster has announced a partnership with social publishing company, Scribd. In recent months, the Scribd website has become known as the YouTube for text because it allows users to share and read original written works. Last month a publishing marketplace was added to the site and independent publishers O’Reilly Media and Berrett-Koehler signed on to make their e-books available. Simon & Schuster is the first major publisher to sign on and at launch 5,000 titles will be available for purchase via a Simon & Schuster storefront on the site. The titles can be purchased in Adobe PDF and ePub formats to be read on computers and mobile devices. The files will work on certain e-readers such as the Sony Reader but not on the Amazon Kindle because it currently does not support the formats. According to an article from The New York Times, publishers will likely favor Scribd’s pricing policy over Amazon’s. Scribd gives publishers control over e-book pricing and allows them to keep 80 percent of the revenue while Amazon sets the prices and reportedly keeps half of the revenue. Scribd is also working on an iPhone app and plans to release it within the coming weeks.

In other news, Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing has just launched a book focused social networking site for teens called Pulse It. According to the press release, the website will give teens the opportunity to read entire books online, create personal profiles, communicate with authors, write reviews and rank books, create blog posts, participate in message board discussions, watch video book trailers and author interviews, and share reviews with friends on Facebook. Simon & Schuster will make two books available each month and members can choose to access one title for 60 days. Pulse It members will also be rewarded for their involvement on the site. Jon Anderson, Executive Vice President and Publisher, Simon & Schuster Children’s Division commented, “The new Pulse It provides its teen members an instantaneous, shared reading experience. We have also made it very easy for them to buzz our books by spreading the word to their peers on other networks and sites.”

Apple hits its one billionth app download in just nine months

Apple's countdown to the one billionth app download ended last week when a lucky winner downloaded the “Bump” app. If you have not heard of “Bump” yet, it is a pretty cool free app that lets users swap contact information by bumping two phones together. Appropriately, the winner was a thirteen year-old and just this week there is a new research report out that indicates that teens have been cutting back spending in many areas due to the economy but one area that has been less affected – digital products. An article from Advertising Age notes, “Teens are not willing to live without things such as music, DVDs, video games, and video-game systems.” As teens become more and more immersed in digital in and out of the classroom and Apple begins the count to its two billionth download, we must consider how these factors will affect our industry in the future.

iPod Shuffles assist Intensive Reading students

According to a recent article, the North Port High School Library in Florida has found that using iPods Shuffles can assist Intensive Reading students. In October, the school invested in 40 iPod Shuffles in an effort to improve student’s reading skills and encourage them to read more. Since then, the students have been using the iPod shuffles to listen to audio books while following along in a printed copy which is a strategy to help improve the rate at which a person reads. As a result, teachers at the school report that the program has been popular with students and they have even been taking the books home to read on their own. The library hopes that the positive outcome from the testing phase will allow them to invest more and upgrade to iPod Nano’s. The Nano version includes a screen which will make it easier for students to find the place in the book where they left off.

E-textbooks could help reduce back pain for college students

A recent study conducted by Boston University reveals that 85% of college students experience back pain from the weight of books in their backpacks. Dr. Karen Jacobs, one of the researchers of the study, recommends that a backpack weigh no more than 10-15% of a student’s body weight and that students carry only what they need. However, a few textbooks can easily add up to more than the recommended percentage never mind the additional weight of a laptop and notebooks. It is also not easy for students to only carry a minimal amount when they have tight schedules or live on large campuses and can not return to their rooms easily. One solution to this problem might be digitalization. In the future, students may find that e-textbooks help them reduce the amount of weight they are required to carry around in their backpack.

Teens in Tech

There is a new website initiative to watch -- http://www.teensintech.com/. The site is the concept of a 15 year old, and is already starting to get a fair amount of press and attention. Here is the site description:

Teens in Tech (www.teensintech.com), the new community for teenagers who produce new media content, including podcasts, blogs, videocasts and more, has launched into private alpha. “Today’s teens are the most media-savvy and self-expressive in history. Yet until now, no company has focused on their needs. Teens in Tech gives teens tools that are designed by teens for teens."

The next generation of content creators -- soon to arrive on our campuses, are now beginning to create their own tools for content, media, social expression and communication. This will probably be a site to watch to get a catch on the "new media solutions" teens create to communicate with each other.