I <3 cake.
A “new” study claims teenagers are less likely to hang with parents due to TV and Internet use.“Teens who spend more time watching television or using computers appear to have poorer relationships with their parents and peers, according to a report in the March issue of Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine.” According to the folks over at Physorg, teenagers (14- and 15-year-olds) who watch extensive amounts of TV and spend time on the Internet are more likely to be independent of their parents.
Their study which polled 3,043 teenagers in 2004 (yeah, they use old statistics and yes, this study came out March 1, 2010) claimed that for every hour these teens watched TV or used the internet they had a 5 percent lower attachment to their parents. According to the results, “Overall, the more time teens spent watching television or playing on a computer, the more likely they were to report low attachment to parents (in other words, difficulty forming a relationship or emotional bond). The risk of having low attachment to parents increased 4 percent for every hour spent viewing television and 5 percent for every hour spent playing on a computer. Conversely, teens who spend more time reading and doing homework reported a higher level of attachment to parents.” They also compared these results to polls completed between 1987 and 1988, when DOS was still prevalent on computers. That being said, do you feel that the extensive use of the Internet or watching TV actually reduces connections in relationships? Or is it quite possible that these researchers mistook the thoughts of a 14-year-old saying they watch TV more than they talk to their parents. What 14-year-old wants to hang out with their parents again?
Clearly there are some other sites that like to claim stuff like this should be considered as factual, but also have no background on the subject.
For some real unbiased information and research, check out Pew Internet’s “Social Media and Young Adults.”
To read the rest of the bogus research report with little backing evidence, check out their full article.
Elliot S. Volkman is a Communications scholar from Gonzaga University who specializes in Computer Mediated Communication.
