Teens Today Spend More Time on Digital Media, Less Time Reading
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Twenge, J. M. (2018, August 20). Teens today spend more time on digital media, less time reading [Press release]. American Psychological Association. https://www.apa.org/news/press/releases/2018/08/teenagers-read-book
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WASHINGTON β If you canβt remember the last time you saw a teenager reading a book, newspaper or magazine, youβre not alone. In recent years, less than 20 percent of U.S. teens report reading a book, magazine or newspaper daily for pleasure, while more than 80 percent say they use social media every day, according to research published by the American Psychological Association.
βCompared with previous generations, teens in the 2010s spent more time online and less time with traditional media, such as books, magazines and television,β said lead author Jean M. Twenge, PhD, author of the book iGen and professor of psychology at San Diego State University. βTime on digital media has displaced time once spent enjoying a book or watching TV.β
Twenge and her colleagues analyzed data from Monitoring the Future, an ongoing study that surveys a nationally representative sample of approximately 50,000 eighth-, 10th- and 12th-grade students annually. They looked at survey results from 1976 to 2016, representing more than 1 million teenagers. While the study started with only 12th-graders in the 1970s, eighth- and 10th-graders were added in 1991.
Use of digital media increased substantially from 2006 to 2016. Among 12th-graders, internet use during leisure time doubled from one to two hours per day during that period. It also increased 75 percent for 10th graders and 68 percent for eighth-graders. Usage rates and increases were fairly uniform across gender, race/ethnicity and socioeconomic status, according to Twenge.
βIn the mid-2010s, the average American 12th-grader reported spending approximately two hours a day texting, just over two hours a day on the internet β which included gaming β and just under two hours a day on social media,β said Twenge. βThatβs a total of about six hours per day on just three digital media activities during their leisure time.β
In comparison, 10th-graders reported a total of five hours per day and eighth-graders reported four hours per day on those three digital activities. And all that time in the digital world is seriously degrading the time they spend on more traditional media, according to Twenge.
The decline in reading print media was especially steep. In the early 1990s, 33 percent of 10th-graders said they read a newspaper almost every day. By 2016, that number was only 2 percent. In the late 1970s, 60 percent of 12th-graders said they read a book or magazine almost every day