In a shocking study, American students were found to be spent nearly every waking minute on either a smart phone, TV, computer, or another type of electronic device. The only exception was the time they spent at school.

This puts a spin on defining education and the source from which it is derived. Kids can ask any question they want and have it answered by numerous sources. More than likely, school and parents would be the last option.

The Kaiser Family Foundation survey found that kids from 8 – 18 spent nearly 7.5 hours a day on electronic devices like smart phones, where they can watch videos and talk to their friends simultaneously, listen to music, or browse the Internet. This stattistic compares to 6.5 hours from five years ago. These time periods exclude the whopping 1.5 hours spent texting and the half hour or so spent talking on cells.

Since this accumulates into nearly 11.5 hours of multitasking into a 7.5 period, attitudes and behaviours are also affecting young Americans. For instance, heavy users were found to get into trouble most often and were less likely to get along with others. Although most kids who use electronic devices tend to do well in school, the heavy users were more likely to get Cs or below.

A 14-year-old boy from Bronx, New York, Francisco Sepulveda sends and receives approximately 500 texts a day. He says when he can’t fall asleep, he has his media content wired and ready to go on his smartphone, a Sidekick LX.

“I use it as my alarm clock, because it has an annoying ringtone that doesn’t stop until you turn it off,” Francisco Sepulveda said of his phone in an online report by the New York Times. “At night, I can text or watch something on YouTube until I fall asleep. It lets me talk on the phone and watch a video at the same time, or listen to music while I send text messages.”

His mother, Janet Sepulveda got him the phone when Francisco’s computer broke down. She wanted to make sure that he had access to the Internet, which was required for his classes. But now, she feels, the Internet is not the issue. At first, she would take the phone away from him by 10 pm, but later she made it clear that she would cancel his service if was abusing his cut-off time.

According to the Kaiser study, 7 out of 10 students have a television in their bedrooms. Additionally, another third have a PC with Internet in their bedrooms. The study also revealed that homes that had strict rules like no media during meals or in the bedroom were more effective in cutting down use of electronic devices.

A lead author for the study, Victoria Rideout said in a comment that it has become more difficult to control what their children do. Noenetheless, they can still have a lasting impact, reports the New York Times.

Jacob Cherian writes for the SourcingLine.