Recently, I asked my family to help me out with what I called the ‘7 day media test’.   Starting on a Sunday, we would track how much time each of us spent on our electronic devices playing on games; surfing the web; cruising social media sites like Facebook, Instgram, Twitter, Pinterist; as well as SnapChatting either ourselves, friends or family.

I told my family that I wanted them to not ‘try’ to ‘unplug’, yet to go about their normal routine of using electronic devices so we could get a true and accurate finding of how much time is spent on media throughout the day and week   Here are the findings listed in order of our top winner of the week with most hours ‘plugged in’:

18 Year Old – 1420 min = 23 hours, 3.3 hr/day

16 Year Old – 780 min = 13 hours, 1.8 hr/day

38 Year Old – 540 min = 9 hours, 1.2 hr/day

42 Year Old – 125 min = 2 hours, .29 hr/day

Family Average – 716 min = 12 hours, 1.7 hr/day

As you can see, these were interesting results.   Oldest child with the most time, youngest with the least.  I was actually suprised at the numbers as I was really thinking my family was spending ‘more’ time on media than they actually were.   Granted, this test was conducted on a work/school week and much time of our day was spent either in school or at work (good to know my kids actually put their phone downs during class), yet at the same time, I was happy to see that they were less than what I was thinking they were at.

So, how does this compare to say… the naitonal average?   Well, I came across this interesting article this morning:

Generation X More Addicted to Social Media Than Millennials, Report Finds | The New York Times by Jonah Engel Bromwich. Adults 35 to 49 were found to spend an average of 6 hours 58 minutes a week on social media networks, compared with 6 hours 19 minutes for the younger group.

This ‘test’ was conducted during a 3 month period and was not ‘self-reported’ as our family test was.   More interestingly to ths report was that the older ‘Gen X’ were found to spend more time than the younger ‘Millenial’s’.

In either case, my opinion is that we should be aware of how much time we spend on media vs. other wholesome activities.    Imagine if we were to replace one to two hours a week away from media with one to two hours of wholesome activities with family; friends and ourselves.

Minimilizing our screen time with face to face time is a goal I continue to work on and it’s great to see the immediate results!   So, take on the challenge yourself, turn off all technology distractions for a set period of time each and every day and see where it takes you!