While a few of them admit to marathon phone calls, the vast majority of young teens aren't walking around with telephones glued to their ears. Within their daily schedule, they are also finding time to read, anywhere from a few minutes to an hour or more, although a good share of that reading is connected with homework. When they did read for pleasure, their choices ranged from Stephen King horror novels and sports biographies to magazines. The eighth-graders also reported that sleep has a significant place in their young lives. Eighteen of the students attend New Bedford's Roosevelt Junior High School while 25 are enrolled at Freetown-Lakeville's Austin Middle School.
Waffles are also big.
Most young teens watch anywhere from a half-hour to four hours of TV per night, with 60 to 90 minutes most typical. Six kids or 15 percent said they watched no television in a recent 24-hour period. About half the reading was tied to homework. The latter averaged 15 minutes to two hours, with 30 to 60 minutes the most common. Typically, students with home computers averaged one to two hours a night on-line.