Teens and screens: Time spent is sometimes 40 hours

For the parents out there: do your children spend a lot of time in front of a screen most of the day? If you have teenagers (or happen to be one) then "screen time" is another term for "hobby." I played sports as a kid, but even back then I tried to absorb video games and TV like a sponge. Well according to Canadian researchers, some teenagers spend as much time in front of a screen as it takes to be employed in a full-time job.

That's in the ballpark of 40 hours per week. Over a thousand teens were studied for half a decade beginning in 1999 to assess habits related to watching TV, playing games, and using computers. Collectively, this was known as screen time.

Guys are the big offenders, over half of whom absorbed over 40 hours in total time spent in front of a screen. Only about a quarter of the girls spent that much time soaking up the technology. It's always interesting to see connections like this drawn, even if they refer to teens of a different region. Judging by activities back in the States, things are not drastically dissimilar over here.