Especially in these times, mobile phones, tablets and computers have become an integral part of our lives. Today, for many people, whether through quarantine or fear for themselves or their loved ones, they have become the only connection to the outside world.
In the 1990s, many people already had a mobile phone, this technology was becoming increasingly popular, computers became more and more popular at the same time and the Internet became more widespread. This led to the fact that in 2019 in Poland, as many as 70.5% of Poles used the Internet and 91.2% have mobile access to the network.
What are New Media?
In simple terms, these include social media, web portals, emails and other such tools. What makes them stand out from traditional media is that in the new media the situation changes very quickly and after just five or ten minutes the situation may be completely different, which means that knowledge-hungry teenagers by nature often check what new things have come up in the case they are currently following. This is because, unlike traditional media, thousands, if not millions, of people have access to constant monitoring and participation in an event on an ongoing basis. Permanent access to commenting on an event and engaging in dialogue about it makes it difficult for someone who is interested in a topic to ‘unseal’ from the monitor.
Teenagers “let in” on the Internet
On average, the young man spent three hours a day surfing the net. In a study carried out by CEBOS in 2013, 20% used the net one hour a day, 28% two hours, 22% three hours and 21% four to five hours. However, an alarming number of hours, with between six and eight hours a day, were spent by 7% of the young people surveyed, while 2% spent an alarming nine or even more hours. In 2019, the NASK Institute conducted a study entitled ‘Teenagers 3.0’ conducted in Polish primary, lower secondary and upper secondary schools, from which it obtained the following results: In 2019, an average teenager spends more than four hours a day online. For this purpose, he usually uses a smartphone, without which many young people currently cannot imagine life. The results of these studies can be seen in the diagram below.
When putting these studies together, it is not difficult to see that the percentage of teenagers spending between 6 hours and 8 hours or more online has increased dramatically compared to the 2013 study.
Dependence on New Media
Referring to the same NASK study from 2019, almost 60% of young Poles browse social media, almost 19% of news and about 18% of mail. Using social media is one of the higher scores in the survey, only listening to music (65.4%), watching movies and series (62.1%) and contacting loved ones through chat rooms and communicators (61%) were higher. All these studies only show how long the Internet and its capabilities can hold us together. It is appalling that 12% of the teenagers surveyed spend eight hours or more on the internet, given that this is one of the first generations to be born in the age of the widespread and so developed internet. What makes teenagers addicted to the most is the social networking sites where they browse all the videos and memes, all kinds of online games (I used to play a lot of MMO RPGs myself), different chats and many more.I use social networking sites quite a lot myself, I browse through memes and write with friends and for the time lost before this type of entertainment I don’t even look at it so I don’t know how much I spend on it.
Sources
CBOS, Internauci 2013
Report on research “Nastolatki 3.0″ NASK (2019)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mobile_phone
http://www.swiatproblemow.pl/nowe-media-pozytek-przyjemnosc-czy-przymus/
I knew teens were spending a lot of time browsing social media, but I certainly did not know it was this much!
Yes, that is unbelievable.