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"Is tech saturation good or bad for the modern teenager? \nArguments can be made either way, but there's no debating that today's teens are more wired than ever. And digital permeates the lives of young people in general, too. \nPeople aged 18-34 have an average of 319 online connections, according to a recent Pew Research Center study. That's compared to an average of 198 connections for the 35-46 group, and the numbers continue to decrease from there. \nPew also recently reported that 63% of teenagers text message with friends on a daily basis, compared to 39% who speak on the phone daily and just 35% who interact face-to-face outside of school. Other research has found that text-happy teens send more than 100 messages per day.\nBut the digital revolution comes with drawbacks. A 2010 Kaiser Family Foundation study found a correlation between media consumption and poor academic performance. The study found that 21% of young people between the ages of eight and 18 consume at least 16 hours of media per day, while 17% consume less than three hours per day. 47% of the heavy users reported typically earning grades of C or below in school, compared to just 23% of the light users. Twice as many heavy users as light users reported getting in trouble frequently.\nThe Internet education portal OnlineSchools.com combined the Kaiser and Pew findings with research from Common Sense Media and other organizations to put together an infographic showing how technology is affecting young people. Some of the findings are a couple years old, but the infographic does provide interesting food for thought. Check it out below for a fuller picture. \nDo you think total tech immersion does more to help or hurt teenagers? Let us know in the comments. \n\n\nThumbnail image courtesy of iStockphoto, Damircudic"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://mashable.com/2012/05/03/teenager-infographi/>