8 to 18 years old spend an average of more than 7 1/2 hours a day, seven days a week with media. Five years ago, young people spent an average of nearly 6 1/2 hours a day with media, and managed to pack more than 8 1/2 hours worth of media content into that time by multitasking. At that point it seemed that young people's lives were filled to the bursting point with media, according to a study by Kaiser Family Foundation.

Over the past five years, young people have increased the amount of time they spend consuming media by an hour and seventeen minutes daily, from 6:21 to 7:38, almost the amount of time most adults spend at work each day, except that young people use media seven days a week instead of five. And, given the amount of time they spend using more than one medium at a time, today's youth pack a total of 10 hours and 45 minutes worth of media content into those daily 7 1/2 hours, an increase of almost 2 1/4 hours of media exposure per day over the past five years.

Use of every type of media has increased over the past 10 years, with the exception of reading. But breaking out different types of print does uncover some statistically significant trends. For example, time spent reading magazines dropped from 14 to 9 minutes a day over the past five years, and time spent reading newspapers went down from 6 minutes a day to 3; but time spent reading books remained steady, and actually increased slightly over the past 10 years (from 21 to 25 minutes a day).

Today, 20% of media consumption (2:07) occurs on mobile devices, cell phones, iPods or handheld video game players. Almost another hour consists of "old" content, TV or music, delivered through "new" pathways on a computer. The development of mobile media has allowed young people to find even more opportunities throughout the day for using media, actually expanding the number of hours when they can consume media, often while on the go. Over the past five years, the proportion of 8 to 18 years old who own their own cell phone has grown from about four in ten, to about two-thirds. The proportion with iPods or other MP3 players increased even more dramatically, jumping from 18% to 76% among all 8 to 18 year-olds.

8 to 18 years old spend an average of a half-hour a day talking on their cell phones, and an average of 49 minutes a day listening to, playing or watching other media on their phones, while 7th- to 12th-graders spend 1 ½ hours a day text messaging (time spent texting is not included in the count of media use, nor is time spent talking on a cell phone). For the first time since this research began in 1999, the amount of time young people spend watching regularly scheduled programming on a television set, at the time it is originally broadcast, has declined by :25 a day but the proliferation of new ways to consume TV content has actually led to an increase of 38 minutes of daily TV consumption.

The increase includes:

* 24 minutes a day watching TV or movies on the Internet

* 15 minutes each watching on cell phones and iPods

* 59% of young people's TV watching occurs on a TV set at the time the programming is originally broadcast

* 41% is either time-shifted, or occurs on a platform other than a TV set

In the last five years, home Internet access has expanded to 84% among young people; the proportion with a laptop has grown from 29%; and Internet access in the bedroom has jumped to 33%. The quality of Internet access has improved as well, with high-speed access increasing from 31% to 59%.

For purposes of comparison, young people were grouped into categories of heavy, moderate and light media users:

* Heavy users are those who consume more than 16 hours of media content in a typical day (21% of all 8 to 18 years old)

* Moderate users are those who consume from 3-16 hours of content (63%)

* Light users are those who consume less than three hours of media in a typical day (17%)

Nearly half of all heavy media users say they usually get fair or poor grades (mostly C's or lower), compared to 1/4 of light media users. Heavy media users are also more likely to say they get into trouble a lot, are often sad or unhappy, and are often bored.

Children who live in homes that impose some type of media-related rules, spend substantially less time with media than do children with more media-lenient parents.

When young people hit the 11 to 14 years old age group there is an increase of more than three hours a day in time spent with media and an increase of four hours a day in total media exposure. Just as children begin to make the transition into adolescence, their media use explodes.

* Eleven to fourteen years old the average just under nine hours of media use a day, and, with multitasking. have nearly 12 hours of media exposure

* The biggest increases are in TV and video game use, with 11 to 14 years old consuming an average of five hours a day of TV and movie content, and spend nearly an hour and a half a day (1:25) playing video games.

Understanding the role of media in young people's lives is essential for those concerned about promoting the healthy development of children and adolescents, including parents, pediatricians, policymakers, children's advocates, educators, and public health groups.