Generation M^2

Last week, a presenter at the AC mentioned the Kaiser Family Foundation had completed its third study of media use among young people (it was released in January... I was left wondering how I had missed it... information overload is the story I am going with). The previous studies were released in 1999 and 2005-- the 2005 report is well-known for introducing the term Generation M as a label for young people in the 21st century, and that term embodies the voracious appetite this generation has for media-- TV, music, computers, print, movies, etc.

There seems no surprises in the most recent data. Young people are heavy users of media (very heavy users of media). The slide I captured off one of the presentations posted of the KFF web site seems the most striking trend. Young people are using half again as much media as they were as the 20th century ended.

I am not sure we educators can do anything to reverse this trend. I am sure that our schools are not organized for brains that are used to this level of media access. I am sure, however, that if anyone knows how to build such schools, it is middle level educators-- as long as we are allowed to create in the manner our praxis  guides, not in the manner prescribed by the "fill-'em-up-and-test-'em folks."