TV or no TV? It's no longer a question: Most kids' rooms have an array of electronic entertainment

Remote retreats
TV or no TV? It's no longer a question: Most kids' rooms have an array
of electronic entertainment

By Alison apRoberts -- Bee Staff Writer
Published 2:15 am PDT Saturday, June 11, 2005
"Go to your multimedia center!"

No matter how you say it, the parental command just doesn't have the
same bite as "Go to your room!"

Yet most kids' bedrooms - yes, that's most - are, in some measure,
electronic entertainment centers. According to a national study by the
Kaiser Family Foundation, two-thirds of all 8-to 18-year-olds have a
TV in their rooms. And that's just the beginning: Along with their
iPods and GameBoys, many also have DVD players, computers and karaoke
machines in their rooms.

The numbers provide only an outline of the story of this plugged-in
generation. How are Sacramento area families managing the wired world
of their kids' rooms? We peeked into some kids' bedrooms to get a more
complete picture (we didn't look under the beds or in the closets).

A TV in every room
There are six children - ages 5 to 15 - in the Tibbits/Paula family in
Orangevale. The age range means there's about as much chance of having
agreement on what to watch on TV as having kids who clean up their
rooms without prodding.

But that's not a problem, because every bedroom has a TV. The most
electrified room is shared by the two oldest boys - Blair Paula, 13,
and Beck Paula, 15. Their room is more bachelor pad than kid room.

Between their beds is a refrigerator and a microwave, handy for corn
dogs and pizza and cold drinks. Facing their beds is a cable TV with
VCR and DVD players. They also share a computer (Medieval Total War is
a current favorite game).

Chelsea Tibbits, 14, has her own room, which is wired with TV ("The
OC" is her favorite show), a karaoke machine, stereo and phone.

Zane Tibbits, 11, also has his own room with TV, DVD and VHS players,
and a computer.

Even the littlest kids - Elliot Tibbits, 5, and Quinn Tibbits, 7 -
have a TV with DVD player in the room they share.

There's also a TV in the living room, another on an outside dining
deck and one in the parents' bedroom.

It sounds like a media free-for-all, but mom and dad, Suzanne
Paula-Tibbits and David Tibbits, do draw the line on two things:
Internet and video games.

"If we had video games in this house, no homework would get done,"
says David Tibbits.

The family's sole Internet access is on a computer in the master
bedroom.

Blair thinks holding the line on going online is fine: "I agree with
my mom on not having access to the Internet in the kids' rooms.
There's just bad things on there."

In this family, the kids also are well aware that media access is
easy-go as well as easy-come.

"They know for a fact that we'll take things away," David Tibbits
says. Blair and Beck lost their TV for several months until Blair
improved his math grades.

The kids contend that all of the TVs keeps family life peaceful.

"It means you're not always fighting over the living room TV," Blair
says.

The Tibbits kids don't seem to be suffering from their wired
lifestyles. They are good students, healthy and athletic. They ride
bikes and jump on the backyard trampoline, and they are polite and fun
to talk to.

Paula-Tibbits, who is 45 and had a TV in her room as a teenager, says
she first put a TV with VCR in one of her children's rooms about 12
years ago. It was a move borne of her own desperation.

"I just couldn't watch 'Beauty and the Beast' one more time," she
says. "When I knew the Ninja Turtle movie theme song and I was singing
it in the grocery store, I knew they had to have their own (VCR)
machine."

Tables and clickers turned
Twelve-year-old Marc Leyva has had a TV in his bedroom his whole life.
As a newborn, the TV room became his bedroom. The set stayed and his
family kept on watching that TV.

Today, Marc's older brother, Luis, 22, and sister, Erika, 18, have TVs
in their rooms. With a set in the master bedroom and in the living
room, that makes five sets altogether - one for each person - in the
family's east Sacramento home.

All of the kids have managed to take care of obligations - homework,
jobs, sports - despite the small-screen distractions.

"That's always been the rule - you have to do your homework first,"
says their mother, Sharilyn Leyva.

Mark says he likes the TV-as-reward rule just fine and that he still
gets plenty of viewing time, as well as time to play on the Nintendo
X-Box that's also in his room.

He has enjoyed TV forever - from his early years watching "Barney" to
his current favorites - pretty much anything on ESPN, "Real World" and
"Cribs" on MTV, and cartoons now and then for old time's sake on
Nickelodeon.

Sharilyn Leyva, 43, says watching TV with her kids is a reminder that
she comes from a different generation - one that didn't grow up with
TVs in every bedroom, countless cable channels and remote control
devices to skim through them.

"I can't stand watching TV with them," she says, laughing. "They're
flipping all the time. They're always searching for something else,
and you can't relax."

But all that clicking expertise comes in handy when she needs a little
help.

"I don't even know how to work the DVD (player) in the living room,"
she says.

Mark smiles knowingly at his mother.

"She always has to have someone help her," he says. "She won't ever
learn."

Rules, what rules?
53 percent: Proportion of kids who say there are no family rules about
TV watching

46 percent: Proportion of kids who say there are rules

20 percent: Proportion of kids who say there are family rules about
TV-watching that are enforced most of the time

The Media Generation
The Kaiser Family Foundation national study, "Generation M: Media in
the lives of 8-18-year-olds," was released in March. Statistics in
this article are from that study.

In the bedroom

68 percent have a TV

49 percent have a video game player

54 percent have a VCR or DVD player

37 percent have cable or satellite TV

31 percent have a computer

20 percent have Internet access

90 minutes
The additional amount of time per day that children with TVs in their
bedrooms spend watching for recreation, compared with those who don't.

A matter of time
6 hours, 21 minutes: Average amount of recreational media time logged
each day by 8-to 18-year-olds.

http://www.sacbee.com/content/lifest...13879795c.html



===
"In the future, my private life will be expressed solely through art."
-- Britney Spears

Ablang wrote:
Remote retreats
TV or no TV? It's no longer a question: Most kids' rooms have an array
of electronic entertainment

By Alison apRoberts -- Bee Staff Writer
Published 2:15 am PDT Saturday, June 11, 2005
"Go to your multimedia center!"

No matter how you say it, the parental command just doesn't have the
same bite as "Go to your room!"

Yet most kids' bedrooms - yes, that's most - are, in some measure,
electronic entertainment centers. According to a national study by the
Kaiser Family Foundation, two-thirds of all 8-to 18-year-olds have a
TV in their rooms. And that's just the beginning: Along with their
iPods and GameBoys, many also have DVD players, computers and karaoke
machines in their rooms.

The numbers provide only an outline of the story of this plugged-in
generation. How are Sacramento area families managing the wired world
of their kids' rooms? We peeked into some kids' bedrooms to get a more
complete picture (we didn't look under the beds or in the closets).

A TV in every room
There are six children - ages 5 to 15 - in the Tibbits/Paula family in
Orangevale. The age range means there's about as much chance of having
agreement on what to watch on TV as having kids who clean up their
rooms without prodding.

But that's not a problem, because every bedroom has a TV. The most
electrified room is shared by the two oldest boys - Blair Paula, 13,
and Beck Paula, 15. Their room is more bachelor pad than kid room.

Between their beds is a refrigerator and a microwave, handy for corn
dogs and pizza and cold drinks. Facing their beds is a cable TV with
VCR and DVD players. They also share a computer (Medieval Total War is
a current favorite game).

Chelsea Tibbits, 14, has her own room, which is wired with TV ("The
OC" is her favorite show), a karaoke machine, stereo and phone.

Zane Tibbits, 11, also has his own room with TV, DVD and VHS players,
and a computer.

Even the littlest kids - Elliot Tibbits, 5, and Quinn Tibbits, 7 -
have a TV with DVD player in the room they share.

There's also a TV in the living room, another on an outside dining
deck and one in the parents' bedroom.

It sounds like a media free-for-all, but mom and dad, Suzanne
Paula-Tibbits and David Tibbits, do draw the line on two things:
Internet and video games.

"If we had video games in this house, no homework would get done,"
says David Tibbits.

The family's sole Internet access is on a computer in the master
bedroom.

Blair thinks holding the line on going online is fine: "I agree with
my mom on not having access to the Internet in the kids' rooms.
There's just bad things on there."

In this family, the kids also are well aware that media access is
easy-go as well as easy-come.

"They know for a fact that we'll take things away," David Tibbits
says. Blair and Beck lost their TV for several months until Blair
improved his math grades.

The kids contend that all of the TVs keeps family life peaceful.

"It means you're not always fighting over the living room TV," Blair
says.

The Tibbits kids don't seem to be suffering from their wired
lifestyles. They are good students, healthy and athletic. They ride
bikes and jump on the backyard trampoline, and they are polite and fun
to talk to.

Paula-Tibbits, who is 45 and had a TV in her room as a teenager, says
she first put a TV with VCR in one of her children's rooms about 12
years ago. It was a move borne of her own desperation.

"I just couldn't watch 'Beauty and the Beast' one more time," she
says. "When I knew the Ninja Turtle movie theme song and I was singing
it in the grocery store, I knew they had to have their own (VCR)
machine."

Tables and clickers turned
Twelve-year-old Marc Leyva has had a TV in his bedroom his whole life.
As a newborn, the TV room became his bedroom. The set stayed and his
family kept on watching that TV.

Today, Marc's older brother, Luis, 22, and sister, Erika, 18, have TVs
in their rooms. With a set in the master bedroom and in the living
room, that makes five sets altogether - one for each person - in the
family's east Sacramento home.

All of the kids have managed to take care of obligations - homework,
jobs, sports - despite the small-screen distractions.

"That's always been the rule - you have to do your homework first,"
says their mother, Sharilyn Leyva.

Mark says he likes the TV-as-reward rule just fine and that he still
gets plenty of viewing time, as well as time to play on the Nintendo
X-Box that's also in his room.

He has enjoyed TV forever - from his early years watching "Barney" to
his current favorites - pretty much anything on ESPN, "Real World" and
"Cribs" on MTV, and cartoons now and then for old time's sake on
Nickelodeon.

Sharilyn Leyva, 43, says watching TV with her kids is a reminder that
she comes from a different generation - one that didn't grow up with
TVs in every bedroom, countless cable channels and remote control
devices to skim through them.

"I can't stand watching TV with them," she says, laughing. "They're
flipping all the time. They're always searching for something else,
and you can't relax."

But all that clicking expertise comes in handy when she needs a little
help.

"I don't even know how to work the DVD (player) in the living room,"
she says.

Mark smiles knowingly at his mother.

"She always has to have someone help her," he says. "She won't ever
learn."

Rules, what rules?
53 percent: Proportion of kids who say there are no family rules about
TV watching

46 percent: Proportion of kids who say there are rules

20 percent: Proportion of kids who say there are family rules about
TV-watching that are enforced most of the time

The Media Generation
The Kaiser Family Foundation national study, "Generation M: Media in
the lives of 8-18-year-olds," was released in March. Statistics in
this article are from that study.

In the bedroom

68 percent have a TV

49 percent have a video game player

54 percent have a VCR or DVD player

37 percent have cable or satellite TV

31 percent have a computer

20 percent have Internet access

90 minutes
The additional amount of time per day that children with TVs in their
bedrooms spend watching for recreation, compared with those who don't.

A matter of time
6 hours, 21 minutes: Average amount of recreational media time logged
each day by 8-to 18-year-olds.

http://www.sacbee.com/content/lifest...13879795c.html


Hard to glean anything meaningful from an 8-18 age grouping.