IS YOUR FAMILY PLUGGED IN? A recent survey conducted by Northwestern University,
“Parenting in the Age of Digital Technology” (PDF), suggests that 84 percent of families with children under the age of 9 live in either “media-centric” (39 percent) or “media-moderate” (45 percent) households.
So, what does this trend toward modern media technology mean for old-fashioned family-time reading? Keep reading … you might be surprised.
MOBILE & MEDIA TECHNOLOGIESConducted between Nov. 27, 2012 and Dec. 12, 2012,
Northwestern University’s Center on Media and Human Development (along with
surveying firm GfK) surveyed 2,326 parents of children aged 8 years old and under. The survey covered everything from parental concerns by child age to media choice to average screen time allowed.
For most families, modern media (laptops, tablets, smartphones, etc.) come with a mix of benefits and drawbacks. As the Northwestern survey suggests, only about a third (29 percent) say mobile devices have made parenting easier—69 percent say they do not.
Easily the most commonly cited concerns among parents relating to the use of mobile devices are distraction and overuse. At the same time, 59 percent of parents acknowledge that computers in general have had “a mainly positive effect on young children’s reading.”
POPULARITY OF BOOKSWhile four in ten parents (actually, 38 percent) identified themselves as “media centric” and a full 81 percent report being “very” or “somewhat” likely to use television to occupy a child during parental chore time, old-fashioned reading still has a strong place in family life, especially as a group activity.
According to the survey, parents were asked about a wide variety of family activities. There were asked to indicate their level of enjoyment participating in a range of family activities, including “playing with toys, games, or art together” to “using computer, tablet, or smartphone together.”
Not surprisingly, “Reading Together” remains a popular family activity, with 87 percent indicating the activity as enjoyable. Compare this to video games, which only 39 percent of surveyed families reported as enjoyable.
Below is a chart from Northwestern University, included in the Parenting in the “Age of Digital Technology” report.
June 16, 2013