Time out, tune in

What happened to the long-held tradition of ‘time out’, the banishment of misbehaving kids to their bedrooms to quietly contemplate their sins? Now sending them to their rooms promises an undisturbed multimedia extravaganza, if a new Gallup Youth Survey is any indication (if you have a subscription, you can read about it in detail here). Nearly two-thirds of U.S. teens, 64 percent, say they have televisions in their rooms while 28 percent say they have a computer with Internet access. (Given the continuing drop in computer prices, you can expect that number to rise.) The poll of teens, aged 13-17, offers some hope for marketers trying to reach American males before they become too elusive: Seventy percent of boys say they have their own sets, staring at the tube an average of 15 hours a week and more than a third of them said their favorite way to spend an evening is watching TV or playing video games. Gallup’s girls kept alive gender assumptions about females and the value they place on relationships. Nearly half of the girls said their favorite thing to do is hang out with family and friends in the evening, with just 17 percent opting for TV instead. In contrast to their brothers, 58 percent of the female teens said they have their own sets; they average 12 hours of viewing a week.

—Posted by Noreen O'Leary

Photo credit: Getty Images

March 1, 2005 in O'Leary | Permalink