Marcella Nunez-Smith of Yale School of Medicine and his team spent more than 18 months studying some 173 researches conducted over the last 30 years on how media affects the lives of children – ‘…obesity, tobacco, drug and alcohol use, sexual behavior, low academic achievement and ADHD’.
Turns out that 80 percent of the research efforts show a ‘link between a negative health outcome and media hours or content’. The study says there is ‘…above average evidence to support the link between media exposure and drug use, alcohol use and low academic achievement.’ This research focused on television, music, movies…
We can wait for more such research to conclusively show that the same is true for web, social-networking sites, cell phones, and video games. Or we as parents can sit up and take notice…
Read the article at Washington Post
First published on December 3, 2008
#media,