Are Teens Really Overscheduled?

I thought so. I bought into the media hype that this generation is too busy. And my impression from the teens I've spoken to here and there is that they are indeed living much more structured lives than most teens from my generation, are more future/achievement/goal oriented, and that some of them are indeed stressed out about it.

But according to a new study published last week by the Society for Research in Child Development, the answer is "no," and if they are, doing lots of activities isn't really so bad for them. From the Newsweek article:

"The study suggests the phenomenon is more isolated than media reports suggest: in fact, 40 percent of children (ages 5 to 18) are engaged in no activities, typical kids spend just five hours a week in structured activities, and very few children — 3 to 6 percent — spend 20 hours a week. On average, most kids spend far more time watching TV and playing games. And for kids who are extremely busy, there's also good news: the more activities they do, the better kids stack up on measures of educational achievement and psychological adjustment."

Ok, the numbers say this, but as Newsweek argues, it's really hard to generalize about this stuff — "no matter what the numbers show, there's no disputing that every child is different — and some will absolutely do better with less." What I would argue is that this generation is overstimulated. Being busy with lots of activities might be part of that feeling, but being constantly plugged in to media and technology and having to digest the constant bombardment of messages without quiet time and space to just "be" is the bigger issue. Thoughts?

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