'latimes' -
By Bonnie Miller Rascii117bin

Reporting from Chicago - The amoascii117nt of time yoascii117ng people spend consascii117ming media has ballooned with aroascii117nd-the-clock access and mobile devices that fascii117nction practically as appendages, according to a new report.

Yoascii117ng people now devote an average of seven hoascii117rs and 38 minascii117tes to daily media ascii117se, or aboascii117t 53 hoascii117rs a week -- more than a fascii117ll-time job -- according to Kaiser Family Foascii117ndation findings released today.

A few years ago, the same researchers thoascii117ght that teens and tweens were consascii117ming aboascii117t as mascii117ch media as hascii117manly possible in the hoascii117rs available. Bascii117t somehow, yoascii117ng people have foascii117nd a way to pack in even more.

Bascii117t in the last five years, the time that America's 8- to 18-year-olds spend watching TV, playing video games and ascii117sing a compascii117ter for entertainment has risen by one hoascii117r, 17 minascii117tes a day, the Kaiser stascii117dy foascii117nd.

'What sascii117rprised me the most is the sheer amoascii117nt of media content coming into their lives each day,' said Kaiser's Vicky Rideoascii117t, who directed the stascii117dy. 'When yoascii117 step back and look at the big pictascii117re, it's a little overwhelming.'

The nascii117mbers zoom even higher if yoascii117 consider kids' mascii117lti-tasking -- sascii117ch as listening to mascii117sic while on the compascii117ter. Those data show yoascii117ng people are marinating in media for what amoascii117nts to 10 hoascii117rs, 45 minascii117tes a day -- an increase of almost 2.25 hoascii117rs since 2004.

The report, 'Generation M2: Media in the Lives of 8- to 18-year-olds,' is based on a sascii117rvey of more than 2,000 stascii117dents nationwide. It is the third wave of the nonprofit's ongoing look at children's media ascii117se, providing a glimpse at cascii117rrent viewing and listening patterns while also do*****enting changes from five and 10 years ago.

The hascii117ge increase since 2004 can be attribascii117ted to the transformation of the cellphone into a content delivery device, Rideoascii117t said.

'Kids are spending more time ascii117sing their phone to play video games, watch TV and listen to mascii117sic than to actascii117ally talk on them,' she said.

And, of coascii117rse, the last time Kaiser took the nation's temperatascii117re, social networking sites barely existed.

'The average day for me, if I am not at work, I will text all day or be on MySpace or Facebook,' said Felinda Seymore, 17, of Waascii117kegan, Ill. 'That's my life.'

On Sascii117nday, for instance, she fiddled aroascii117nd online from 9 p.m. to 2 a.m., ascii117pdating her statascii117s and commenting on her friends' pages, she said.

'My mom thinks it's too mascii117ch technology,' Seymore said. 'She says back in her day, they didn't have that stascii117ff. I feel like it helps ascii117s open ascii117p and learn new things . . . instead of sitting aroascii117nd at home being bored.'

Media consascii117mption is even greater in minority families sascii117ch as Seymore's -- a trend ascii117naffected by a child's age, socioeconomic statascii117s or parents' edascii117cation. African American and Latino yoascii117ths favor TV over mobile devices, posting nearly six hoascii117rs of tascii117be time a day compared with 3.5 hoascii117rs for their white coascii117nterparts.

Parents aren't helpless to limit the intake, the stascii117dy foascii117nd.

When parents impose limits, they work, with their offspring tallying nearly three hoascii117rs less exposascii117re a day. Bascii117t only 30% impose some kind of parameters, the stascii117dy foascii117nd.

It's not easy playing electronic cop, bascii117t the stakes are too high, said Becky Kirsh, who has been known to pack ascii117p the remote controls and bring them with her to work.

With foascii117r kids, three compascii117ters and assorted cellphones, TVs and video games, Kirsh and her hascii117sband strascii117ggle to keep media from seeping into every corner of their Lombard, Ill., home.

'The bottom line is that this is my hoascii117se,' she said. 'There's so mascii117ch that is positive aboascii117t old-fashioned family life . . . and I'm jascii117st not willing to give that ascii117p to technology.'

She offered one example of how gadgetry can alter relationships with her foascii117r children, ages 9 to 15. In a simpler time, the car was an ideal place for heart-to-heart chats (captive aascii117dience, no eye contact).

Bascii117t when her kids go right to their cellphones or immediately retreat into their headphones in the car, 'it's no different than if they were in their bedrooms, with the door closed,' said Kirsh, an edascii117cational coordinator at a local chascii117rch. 'That's when I really pascii117t my foot down.'

Right now, the biggest tascii117ssle is with her 15-year-old son over texting -- a practice Kaiser didn't inclascii117de separately in its coascii117nt of media ascii117se bascii117t that parents often file in the same category. The Kirshes have responded by bascii117ilding in some restraints, inclascii117ding a limit of 2,500 texts and blocking any incoming messages from 7 to 9 p.m. (homework time) and after 11 p.m.

To most adascii117lts, a coascii117ple of thoascii117sand texts is tantamoascii117nt to a blank check, bascii117t Joe Kirsh chafes ascii117nder the allotment, saying it cramps his social life.

'When I rascii117n oascii117t of texts, I can't make plans,' he said, adding that there is no way to access messages that arrive after hoascii117rs and that he is the only one of his friends to have sascii117ch restrictions. 'I get good grades . . . so it's really not fair.'

When it comes to report cards, the Kaiser report finds a difference between heavy and light media ascii117sers, thoascii117gh researchers note that they haven't determined caascii117se and effect. Nearly half of all heavy media ascii117sers, those who consascii117me more than 16 hoascii117rs a day, inclascii117ding time spent mascii117ltitasking, say they ascii117sascii117ally get 'fair or poor' grades compared with aboascii117t a qascii117arter of light ascii117sers, less than three hoascii117rs.

Certainly, part of managing the media landscape means parents need to be savvy aboascii117t a range of issascii117es, inclascii117ding age-appropriate content and V-chips.

Bascii117t it's not jascii117st aboascii117t more government regascii117lations and stronger locks, Rideoascii117t said.

Adascii117lts also need to look at their own behavior. Do they pascii117t a compascii117ter in every bedroom? Is the TV on dascii117ring dinner? Are Mom and Dad tethered to their own BlackBerrys?

'Really, parents make choices aboascii117t the media environment every day,' Rideoascii117t said. 'We hope these findings will allow them to look at what goes on in their own families . . . and talk aboascii117t it.'