Social Media Synthesis Essay

Introduction As most people know media is getting bigger and faster every single day. Media and the technology behind it can make everyone’s lives a bit easier, but are America’s youths overusing it? Nathalie Tadena of the Wall Street Journal uproots just how much teens are spending on a variety of medias. Tedena answers the never ending question on every parent’s mind “are teens spending too much time on their screens?”. This fueled the recent study conducted by Common Sense Media, explaining the cold hard facts of just how much this demographic uses media.
News Article Purpose and Study Fit The goal of Nathalie Tedena’s report “Teens Still Prefer TV and Video to Social Media” was to shed light on teen media use, more specifically

The Common Sense Media team along with VJR consulting, complied data from nationally from more than 2,650 tweens and teens. The sample of the survey was randomly selected using “address-based sampling and random-digit-dial telephone calls” (Source 2). This was to ensure diversity among survey participants. This study covers all major media’s such as video games, text messaging, using social media websites, browsing the internet, and listening to music. It explains the obvious facts such as “7 percent of boys say playing video games is their favorite media activity; only 2 percent of girls do.” (Source 2). Yet the study also unveils some facts that are looked over by many. Evidently many children in this study do not even post content on social media but instead read what others are posting “Teens and tweens spend 39% and 41% of their digital media time, respectively, “passively” consuming content such as online videos, TV shows or listening to music. In comparison, only 3% of teens and tweens’ digital media time is spent on creating content such as making art or music or writing.” (Source 1). With changing times and more and more adolescents gaining access to media it was imperative for an organization like Common Sense Media to conduct its own research to find out the statistics of teen media