Follow the Glowing Rectangles

Back in June, the Onion “reported” that we spend 90% of our lives staring at glowing rectangles. Folly has been one-upped by fact: this morning, the Times brings us news of the results of the latest Kaiser Family Foundation study on children and their use of media devices. Compared to their last investigation in 2005, which found that kids spent just under six and a half hours using media, 8 to 18-year-old kids today are spending upwards of seven and a half hours a day glued to devices. Add in multitasking and you’ve got approximately eleven hours of content packed into seven and a half hours of attention.  I can’t say that I’m not part of this trend; I fall asleep and wake up to the glow and tones of media devices. But when I was eight, we had a television with a VCR and local-only channels, a telephone, a fax machine and a backyard.  Guess where I spent most of my time?   I learned what it was to “play” before I knew what video games were and before the Internet was widespread; I fear for the generation whose blocks and tea sets are digital.