At this point, most people recognize that the stereotype of teenagers spending too much time on their phones has some truth to it, but they probably do not understand the extent of this problem.

Teenagers are busy people. Most have to fit school, sleep, work, meals, extracurriculars, and hopefully, but maybe most importantly, social interactions with friends and family all into one 24 hour day. In addition to these things, teens are putting aside a shocking average of 9 hours per day to use media, as a study by Common Sense Media reports.

This 9 hour average found by the study includes only the time teens spend on the media for their own enjoyment, not for the purpose of school and homework. Media includes things such as internet use, video games, television, and music.

With all of the complaints that tend to fly around about not having enough time, one might wonder where teens find 9 whole hours to waste. The answer partially lies in multitasking. According to CNN, half of teens claim to “often” or “sometimes” watch television or use social media while doing homework, and most teenagers do not see this as harmful to their work or learning. Almost ⅔ say texting or watching TV does not make a difference in the quality of their work, and half feel the same way about social media.

The general consensus among teens that says multitasking does not affect their learning is proven wrong by multiple studies. One study by Stanford, called “Cognitive Control in Media Multitaskers”, found multitaskers to be slower and have less long-term retention rates than people who do not multitask while processing information.

Obviously, technology is here to stay. It is unrealistic to think that we should rid ourselves of modern media and all of the negative effects and valuable tools that come along with it, but an entire generation spending over a third of their time looking at screens is not only a waste of time, it’s a danger.