A University of Chicago study found that the average ninth-grade girl spends three hours on the phone each day, while boys in that grade spend an hour on the phone each day. Today, children and teenagers are likely to learn about family life, friendships, sexuality, health, alcohol and other drugs, gender roles, and many other parts of life through television, not their parents. Though television can convey and reinforce positive values, too often it has a negative, not positive, impact-particularly when it dominates a young person's life. The Troubled Journey found that young people who watch three or more hours of television on an average school day engage in more at-risk behaviors. However, this positive possibility happens less and less often, and the tube tends to pull families apart.
People watch television alone or with people their own age.
In families with more than one set, family viewing fell to 36 percent. With increases in the number of TV sets in families in the past decade and the boon in cable choices, we can deduce that family viewing is less frequent now. However, increased TV use does decrease reading. Researchers have found that children who read the most for fun tend to watch the least television. Because television disproportionally shows men and women in traditional roles, it tends to reinforce those beliefs in young people's minds.