The XX Factor

Everyone’s Plugged In

Hanna , I have a teenager, and I found the study that says kids spend every free moment on electronic devices all too believable. But even if your own kids are too young for them, don’t most of the adults you know spend every free minute on some kind of electronic device? It apparently is common at business meetings for people to place their iPhones and BlackBerries on the conference table and text and scroll while at a meeting. I see people at restaurants and movies in couples and groups where at least one person is absorbed in the phone. Does anyone take a walk, go to the gym, or commute without being plugged into an iPod or listening to the radio? And once dinner is made and the dishes are done (and I bet a lot of people are listening to something while they’re doing those tasks), how many adults then flop in front of the TV or park themselves at the computer for a couple of hours before bed?

Photograph of a teen girl using a laptop by Jim Esposito/Photodisc/Getty Creative Images.