Common Sense Media have published their annual report from a large-scale, national survey of U.S teens and tweens on their media use habits.
The report compares media use by teens and tweens before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. Within the report, the authors present some recommendations for caregivers and parents as well as policymakers about healthy and safe media use for young people.
Below are some key findings from the report:
- Media use in tweens and teens has grown faster since the start of the pandemic than it has over the four years prior to the pandemic.
- If forced to choose, teens say YouTube is the site that they wouldn’t want to live without
- Use of social media is growing among 8- to 12-year-olds.
- Teens (13- to 18-year-olds) now spend nearly an hour and a half a day using social media but have conflicted feelings about the medium.
- Among both tweens and teens, there are substantial variations in the average amount of screen media engaged with each day, by gender, race/ethnicity, and household income.
- Though children consumed more media overall after the pandemic than they had before, one form of media did not increase in usage: reading.
- Nearly half (46%) of all 13- to 18-year-olds have listened to podcasts, and one in five say they do so at least once a week.
- Large numbers of Black, Hispanic/ Latino, and children in lower-income households still do not have access to a computer at home, one of the most basic building blocks of digital equity.
Read the full report here or check out the infographic summary.
(GGTU's Evidence-Informed Practice web page on Youth, Smartphones and Social Media will be on our website in the late Spring which contains additional information and resources for mental health and social service professionals. I will share the link once it's live!)
