<p>How many hours do they spend a day chatting online, e-mailing, text messaging etc?
My household is larger by two tenagers for this summer (15 and 17 years old). Laptop is always on, they sleep with their cell phone/music devices nearby. The first think they do when they wake up in am is to turn their comp. on - this is done before getting up and using the restroom !
While on computer they do at least two things at the same time, like watching the movie and chatting simultaneously.
Yesterday am my internet was down for some unspecified reasons and I swer that the 17 year old had withdrawal symptoms. His hands were going, he was pacing, his mouth would not shut (“when is it going to be back on?”), an hour later he could be seen pacing the streets of my neighborhood looking for some unprotected wireless connection 
My younger kids are looking and learning. OMG!!!</p>
<p>Yep, it’s the sign of the future (and present!). I was always very anti-video games (unless they truly were educational…Reader Rabbit, etc.). But between IMing, facebook, IPods and Cell Phones, that leaves little time for face to face interaction with our kids sometimes.</p>
<p>BTW, I read that Bill and Melinda Gates have a 1 hr/day computer time limitation on their young daughter. Just wait until she becomes a teenager!!!</p>
<p>Mixed here. College age D is not a problem; 14 year old S can be.</p>
<p>We have an hour limit on videogames for him. Also, my W is requiring him to write 5 book reports this summer, on books of her choosing iincluding books by Orwell, Nathanian Hawthorne and Jules Verne. S is not happy, but he is complying. He’ll he off for summer session in acting and video production soon.</p>
<p>Yep, sounds familiar, especially the phone in the bed thing (computer’s in our room–off limits when either/both of us is asleep!) Unfortunately, they seem to have text messages (conversations) late at night which really eat into her 500 text messages/month. She’s had some pretty hefty overages as a result (she pays for the overages).</p>
<p>However, we’re shopping for a laptop for college; once we get that, I’ll bet she’s online at all hours too!</p>
<p>College sophomore D is missing her east coast buddies big time. She is on FaceBook all the time with them. </p>
<p>High school son would never get off, but we have a time limit for the computer.</p>
<p>My own kids do have time limitations, even now during the summer. Plus there is no computer until they have done their chores for a day (we also do book reports
The ones I have problems with are my nieces. And it is really not my problem, since house has wi-fi and there is other computers available and they will be back in Europe in 6 weeks. It just simply drives me nuts though, I don’t know why???</p>
<p>Maybe it’s an age thing?</p>
<p>We have to watch the 14 year old. He doesn’t play videogames anymore (thank goodness…even though we JUST bought xbox 360), but he is pretty obsessed with itunes and his ipod. He spends hours researching music and planning updates for his ipod. I try to have a list of chores and activities he has to complete before he can get online every day. Unfortunately, I can be a terrible example…lol! (But hey…I just scrubbed the laundry room and pantry from top to bottom before I checked in to post on this thread. ;))</p>
<p>The college sophomore checks her facebook about once every couple of weeks or so…sometimes going as long as a month without bothering. But she IS busy with work and her summer class. I’m not worried about her time on the computer since it doesn’t seem overly social. Her time online seems to be more geared to researching for her papers, checking blackboard for grades, online banking and that sort of thing. She occasionally plays video games on the 360 when she has a friend over. But she and her friends are more movie buffs than electronics addicts. Her worst obsession right now seems to be her new Nokia version of a Blackberry. It is pretty cool…so I don’t blame her.</p>
<p>Yes, but so am I.</p>
<p>I use electronic stuff as much as they do. I just don’t use as many things simultaneously. I don’t understand how today’s young people timeshare their brains. I can’t even talk to another person while driving the car without getting off the wrong exit by mistake.</p>
<p>Thank goodness for horses and singing. If it weren’t for those things, I don’t think my daughter would ever be far from the laptop. The trainer actually had to tell the kids they couldn’t bring their phones into riding lessons - you think driving a car is hard while texting!</p>
<p>I use my computer a lot, but I also spend time reading, working, practicing music, and out with my friends. It’s not unusual for me to bring my computer downstairs where other people in the house are. It’s also not unusual for me to be on my laptop in my room. I’ve never been addicted or obsessed, and I don’t do any “gaming,” so it’s not really a problem.</p>
<p>Thanks to the hours spent “wasting time” on the computer, my son now earns $25 an hour freelance programming. He never IMs and barely reads his e-mail. We still don’t have a family plan cell phone - though it’s on the list of things to do this summer.</p>
<p>I’m with Marian. My son is so far ahead of me… wth tech but he also did all his work in HS. If he hadn’t stayed on top of his work, I would have said something, but what do you say when they are standing like stars?</p>
<p>props to astrophysicsmom for name-dropping “Reader Rabbit” hahahaha…I loved that game when I was little! </p>
<p>I would say I’m pretty dependent on electronics (19, female, will be college sophomore in August)…I have just about every electronic device except video games, because I sort of grew out of that. I do enjoy an exciting round of Guitar Hero and DDR though! Since I’m at school for the summer and all my friends are home (HS and college friends), I talk to them mainly through Facebook, AIM, and through cell phones. My apartment doesn’t have a land line hooked up…we have the option, but all of us have cell phones so what’s the point? There’s a group of guys I talk to on message boards (we met through Rivals, sports people know about it), and now we made our own board to talk about things that would get us banned on Rivals sites, and we had a big get-together on the 4th to party and hang out, and it was the first time most of us had met in person besides Facebook and on the phone. They’re not psycho-stalkers, don’t worry. </p>
<p>At my internship I’ve been given a database of former basketball players from my university and the list has everyone who played in the last 100 years. My boss asked me to confirm addresses and look up missing addresses/phone numbers, and when I went straight to the Internet, she about lost her mind. She’s dependent on the phone and got confused watching me look up the addresses for these guys online.</p>
<p>Technology has come, and it’s here to stay. I’m sure my generation, when we’re parents, will be dependent on e-mail and cell phones and our kids will be off using some strange devices or programs that are completely foreign to adults.</p>
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<p>Just a hint…you might want to make sure he isn’t using Limewire. That’s a popular site for downloading free music (illegally). The kids will sometimes give their parents some ridiculous story about how it’s perfectly legal. It’s not. If he’s paying for music, it usually costs $1 per song (with a very few exceptions). It’s just another one of those parental things to be aware of.</p>
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<p>It’s legal in Canada, as long as you’re not uploading, for the record.</p>
<p>My S’s are most dependent on their cell phones, never go anywhere without them. They are both prob. on the computer daily but not for am inordinate amt. of time, not really into video games, mostly on facebook and any websites regarding 4x4 trucks, tires, offroading accessories.
S1 uses IPod strictly for workouts and running. S2 keep his in his truck plugged in to his stereo system.</p>
<p>College age S barely on computer, on phone mostly just to make real-life plans with friends and as an alarm, doesn’t own an Ipod, plays old X-box games maybe an hour a day.</p>
<p>Definitely has gone down as he has gotten older, especially the reduction in texting, IMing, and general computer use.</p>
<p>Both my kids are very dependent on their computers and cellphones, as am I. (I have a personal cell and a work Blackberry to which I am addicted). S and D use facebook to communicate, text message (S, not D), D’s wedding is being organized online, S took an online summer course through his college… S seems to constantly be on the phone talking or texting- when he gets tired of it (usually when I am trying to reach him…) he puts it on silent.<br>
My opinion is that it is a good thing. I believe it allows my kids to maintain close friendships with people all over the country/world in a way that we were not able to do by letter writing and an occasional long distance phone call. I really envy this generation. I am doing my best to use the same tools to maintain my long-distance friendships in a meaningful way, but not everyone in my generation is so inclined. I DO have friends with whom I communicate through AIM away messages, even when we can’t chat! I’ll get a frantic phone call from one of them asking, “What happened? Who got a job?” or some such thing.</p>
<p>My reaction to the question was “well, yes, of course, all of us are.”</p>
<p>I use electricity all the time, I have my circle of regular email correspondents, and I check four different newspapers regularly. Not to mention online banking for our business and personal applications. Oh–and that business is 95% internet sales. DH gets up in the AM and checks biz email, and does that last thing at the end of the day. We have suppliers worldwide and couldn’t possibly manage that by telephone.</p>
<p>As for the kids, my theater/lit D is probably the least computer dependent, but she journals online, keeps her recipes online, and checks email three times a day, as far as I can tell. My EECS son is never offline, except when he’s driving, and the fastest way to reach him is by email (I don’t IM, or that would be faster). None of us plays computer games… well, except for my solitaire habit.</p>
<p>YES.</p>
<p>He takes it to a bit of an extreme: he and his roommate are using SolidWorks (3-D CAD program) to design their dorm room for this fall.</p>