Three stats shocked me today:
- on average teens spend 7.5 hours a day consuming digital media (cell phone, TV, iPod, computer, …),
- on average teens spend 4 minutes a day talking to their parents,
- married couples, on average spend 11 minutes a day talking.
We’ll that just says it all. Parents aren’t raising kids, their media sources are. Unless you are managing your kid’s media consumption, then the media has more of an influence on your kids than you do.
It does bug me when ministers talk about media these days and cluck their tongues and talk about how silly it is that teens are texting each other when they are right beside each other. I think it’s stupid too but here we are. We can rail against it, stomp our feet and pout, but that doesn’t make it any less true. If you are a minister and you want to proclaim the good news in this culture, you cannot afford to write off digital media, so suck it up buttercup!
Even media is changing. Email is passing away as cell phones become more dominant. The next desktop computers you buy will likely be your last one you buy. Mobile devices will be the primary way you use the Internet within the next ten years. If that doesn’t make your head spin, watch this:
Life With You 