The other day The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation released several reports regarding the media use of children and teens between the ages of 8 and 18. Although I am not surprised to see that media use has increased, I am a little surprised at the amount of time that is spent on media in general. The study found that on any typical day, the average 8-18 year-old packs 10.75 hours worth of media content into 7.5 hours.
The main areas that were highlighted in a summary of the report were:
Mobile media driving increased consumption
Parents and media rules
Media in the home
Heavy media users report getting lower grades
Black and Hispanic children spend far more time with media than White children do
Big changes in TV
Popular new activities like social networking also contribute to increased media use
Types of media kids consume
High levels of media multitasking
It’s interesting how much of an increase there is once children get to the tween, 11-14 year-old age group. This report didn’t even include texting, which would bring the amount of time up another hour or so for that age group. I also found the gap between gender pretty interesting. The report found that girls spend more time reading and networking than boys, while boys spend more time than girls on video game usage and visiting video websites. I find it rather disappointing that roughly 30% of children have any type of rules regarding the time they can spend with different types of media. One thing’s for sure, marketing departments should have a field day with this report.
This morning I came across a Gizmodo post, Sneak Peek of New BBC Documentary ‘The Virtual Revolution.’ The multi-part documentary airs on January 30th. It’s a look at the internet featuring interviews with Tim Berners-Lee (MIT engineer behind the web), Mark Zuckerberg (Facebook), Jimmy Wales (Wikipedia), Jeff Bezos (Amazon), Al Gore, Bill Gates, Steve Wozniak, and Stephen Fry.
BBC has an ongoing website to capture the project in the making. You can also follow their updates on Twitter (@bbcdigrev). It looks like the series is divided into the following titles: 1. Power on the web, 2. The fate of nations, 3. The cost of free, 4. The web and us. I hadn’t heard of this series before, but it seems pretty interesting. digital revolution is a four part series for BCC Two about how the web is changing the world. Due in 2010, it’s in production now, and we’re offereing a range of ways to interact with the programme team and the content we produce. get involved
Part II – PlayOn & MediaLink – For those of you who have a Playstation 3, Xbox 360, or HP MediaSmart TV, there’s software out there that can stream content from your PC to your system. It’s called PlayOn. This software just came out of beta yesterday and until February 8th, this software costs only $30. The price goes up another $10 after that, but in my opinion, it’s worth it. Of course, there’s always a 14 day trial for those who aren’t quite sure it’s for them.
I’ve had this software for quite awhile, as a beta tester. The most convenient thing about PlayOn, in my opinion, is that it allows you to stream your instant queue from Netflix. You can also browse through Hulu, CBS, YouTube, CNN, and ESPN content. I’m sure they’ll probably add more down the road. There were quite a few bugs during beta testing, but that’s to be expected. Seems that everything is relatively stable at this point. Very convenient for the PS3 owner who wants to stream Netflix and other content.
One thing about PlayOn is that it needs Windows to stream off your computer to your system. Just fine and dandy if you have a PC running Windows by default. If not, just simply run Windows through Parallels or VMWare on your Mac. It works great.
The other app I mentioned is NullRiver’s MediaLink. It’s $20, but again, pretty useful. Especially if you have a Mac and a PS3 (they also have an Xbox 360 version). MediaLink allows you to stream media from your Mac to your PS3. It acts as a server and shows up right in the XMB menu. You’ll instantly have access to iPhoto, iTunes, Aperture, etc. I find this very useful because sure, I can set up my hard drive and stream my music off of it, but have you ever tried to set up a playlist on the PS3? It’s a pain. With MediaLink, I can view my iPhoto albums and iTunes playlists instantly, just as I have them set up on my Mac. Want a different playlist? Just set one up and refresh and there it is. Check it out if you have a Mac and have been looking to integrate it with your PS3.
