Filling Those Interstitial Spaces

I was debating with a friend recently exactly how much consumption of digital media is healthy for our kids. It used to be that parents just had to worry about limiting TV time. Now, it’s a bit more complicated. There aren’t just 6 channels on TV but 500, and you also have to contend with the Wii and other entertainment systems, the cell phone and the iPod. It’s a bit daunting. So, how much is too much?  My friend’s solution was straightforward: three hours a day with “electronics of any type.” But I argued that it’s not that simple. Just as there’s a difference between an hour spent watching PBS versus MTV, there’s a big difference in the kind of digital content your children can consume.

Given my obviously enlightened view of digital media and the youth of today, I was caught off guard by my own reaction recently when I arrived home from work. My 11-year-old son, sporting headphones and deeply engrossed in an episode of “Naruto" on his laptop, didn’t even notice I’d entered the room. Meanwhile, my 8-year-old daughter, similarly outfitted, gave me a quick wave and continued downloading new tunes to her Nano. While at once pleased with the relaxing silence that greeted me, it gave me pause. 
 

We have three computers in our house: one desktop and two laptops (three if you count my work machine). Between Facebook, the Internet and the myriad online games out there, not to mention the Wii and the DS, it’s no wonder my kids are addicted to electronics. Apparently, I’m not the only parent who’s observed this phenomenon. USA Today reports, “Kids these days spend so much time with electronic media—cell phones, iPods, video games and computers—that it might as well be a full-time job: more than 53 hours a week, a study finds.” 53 hours? That’s more than a typical workweek! A representative of the Pew Research Center's Internet & American Life Project commented, “The near-ubiquity of mobile devices has had a profound effect on kids' free time, filling up ‘the interstitial spaces’ in their daily lives.”  The interstitial spaces? Isn’t that otherwise known as time to ponder and reflect?  So while I spend my day and admittedly much of my free time dedicated to the world of digital media, I began to question my enlightened perspective.

Putting my parental concerns aside, as someone in the business of developing custom content for both print and digital media, there’s hope in our future generations’ addiction to all things electronic. That same research showed that the percentage of young people who say they read a print magazine every day has plummeted to 35 percent from 55 percent. It's worse for newspapers, down to 23 percent from 42 percent. Where is the hope in that, you say? Well, with the rapidly growing popularity of e-readers like the Kindle and Apple’s forthcoming iTablet, kids can consume magazine content no matter where they are, filling up those “interstitial spaces” with the work we create every day. And that’s not bad at all.

Posted By: Kerry Andrews