Teens, Kids Consume 7.5 Hours of Media a Day

Young people spend more time consuming media in a week than they’d spend at a full-time job, according to a new study. Researchers say that 8- to 18-year-olds spend 7 hours and 38 minutes a day watching TV, playing video games, or amusing themselves on a computer, which has risen by one hour and 17 minutes since 2004; that's a total of 53 hours a week.

“When you step back and look at the big picture, it's a little overwhelming,” says the study’s director, who attributes the bump to the evolution of cell phones into devices used to listen to music and play video games, among other things. Indeed, given all their time spent multitasking—like watching Glee while updating their Facebook status—they actually cram about 10 hours and 45 minutes worth of media into those 7 hours and 38 minutes, an increase of 2.25 hours since 2004. (More media stories.)