Youth of America Spend Half Their Waking Hours Staring at Screens [Charts]

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/-2tJTuSdrZU/youth-of-america-spend-half-their-waking-hours-staring-at-screens

Or, if you count multitasking—which is just the kind of hysterical, stat-juicing thing you would do if you were running a study like this—nearly 11 hours a day. That doesn't leave a lot of time for fresh air.

Even with out including multitasking hours, the Kaiser Family Foundation study shows that kids these days are watching TV, texting, or on the internet 7.5 hours each and every day. That's an hour more than in 2004, and an even bigger jump since 1999. Basically, if they're awake and not in school, they're staring at a screen.

My first thought: so what? The children are our future, and our future is a digital age. I can accept that. And there's a lot of valuable information and insight to be gleaned from these here internets, if you look in the right places.

My second thought: oh, man, are we doomed. [NY Times]